Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Posted by Bill Smith at 12:17 PM | 12 comments

Bill, I too was holding my breath and hoping against hope that Ms. Floyd would pull ahead somehow and win this thing. Sadly she has not. I have been not a little surprised that Brad Warthen hasn't yet proclaimed that this was a ringing endorsement of the status quo and the mandate that educrats needed to keep on doing what they always have done....fiddle while Rome burns. As I said, I am surprised that Brad hasn't claimed this was a mandate for the status quo, but he hasn't...and I've been watching. Could it be that even he realizes what this absolute sqeaker really means? The only rational conclusion that I think can be drawn from this election is that statistically exactly one half of the citizens in this state are outraged by and tired of the public education system we are being forced to pay for. Maybe this message is getting through to the Brads and Cindis of the world. Better yet, maybe Jim Rex realizes what voters said 2 weeks ago. Dave
 

The most interesting thing about this race was the 40 some odd thousand third party votes. If you ask me, Brad should give some thought to the significance of that.
 

great. more children stuck in status quo failing schools while "la socialista" lies and lies about vouchers.
 

Haven't you learned your lesson? South Carolina wants nothing to do with vouchers!Karen Floyd suckered people into voting for her, BUT SHE LOST!!! Now we will have someone in office who actually knows something about education and the education system. Sure our schools have their problems, but I think most parents would rather fix the problems than drive a stake in the heart of schools with some untried voucher scheme.
 

Haven't you learned your lesson? South Carolina wants nothing to do with vouchers!Karen Floyd suckered people into voting for her, BUT SHE LOST!!! Now we will have someone in office who actually knows something about education and the education system. Sure our schools have their problems, but I think most parents would rather fix the problems than drive a stake in the heart of schools with some untried voucher scheme.
 

Sorry...accidentally hit the button twice.
 

You smugly assumed a Karen Floyd win and were made to look foolish. Maybe Brad and Cindi weren't so far off.
 

That's a good little leftie, thinking that "being made to look bad" is some agonizing disaster.

In South Carolina we don't care about looking bad.

If we did, we wouldn't rank dead last in how we are doing at educating our kids.
 

Exactly. And another thing...you say South Carolina wants nothing to do with vouchers? Excuse me? I think the election results were pretty clear: One of every two people who voted favored Karen Floyd, and vouchers, and whatever other initiatives she would have implemented to drag this state out of the mudhole it is in with status quo public ed. Get used to it lefty, you very nearly lost this election. Go ahead, be an idiot. Be smug. Keep doing what you've been doing for so long. You lose your a$$ next time. Dave
 

But she didn't win Dave, so I can be smug. And in addition to being smug I can actually have confidence that the man in charge actually is an educator, and has REAL ideas about moving our schools forward. It looks like sucking them dry and leaving our kids to deal with won't happen now. You should be happy
 

You're dancing around the point that fully one half of the people who voted did so for Karen Floyd, and against you and your guy and the status quo education horror that we have in this state. Rex won by a few hundred votes out of several million cast. This gives you little reason to gloat I'd say. I'd say this was pretty much a blunt warning that almost exactly half of South Carolina citizens believed it was and is time for change. If I were on your side I'd take that message to heart...'cause if things keep going the way they have been I see a loss in your future. Dave
 

Dave,

Things are bad sure, but I think there are better ways to fix it than all of a sudden sending public dollars to private schools. Karen Floyd did receive alot of votes, but this is a republican state, and she was unclear about her stance on school choice. That's all over. What about more charter schools, and Montessori schools, and public school choice? Do you have good reason to believe those options won't seriously jumpstart our lagging schools? I would honestly appreciate your opinion. There has to be a better way to 'put kids in front of the system' without actually privatizing education.