Dr. Thomas White, Superintendent of Spartanburg School District 7, has found himself with a great deal of explaining to do about the district's recent spending, seen by some as frivolous. But how much of this scandal is generated by those with a hidden agenda? White recently said of the proposed audit of the S.C. public school system, "This is a very thinly veiled attempt to score points for tuition tax credits and vouchers."
Never underestimate the power of an indignant citizenry. That’s a lesson I’d imagine Spartanburg School District 7 Superintendent Thomas White and the District 7 School Board won’t soon forget. White and the Board have been running around with their tails between their legs since having their sweetheart $325,000 deal with the Country Club of Spartanburg shot down by an outraged public incensed at the idea of spending that sort of money on a private golf course during these trying economic times.
After receiving a well-deserved tongue-lashing from the public last week over the timing and appropriateness of the proposal, as well as concerns over a potential conflict of interest due to the fact that Superintendent White and three Board members are also members at the Country Club, the School Board backed down and took the deal off the table “indefinitely.†Barring some unforeseen development, this deal is dead, and the citizens of District 7 deserve all the credit for making it happen. This is a victory for the good guys right?
So why do I have a bad feeling that all this public outrage will end up being a bad thing for District 7 schools?
Well for starters, the people yelling about this most loudly are the libertarian-leaning conservatives. This sort of thing is just the political wedge they’ve been looking for to drum up support for so-called “school choice.†The right-wing extremist South Carolinians for Responsible Government, a group founded by one of arch-libertarian Howard Rich’s lieutenants and funded largely with Rich’s money, has been all over the District 7 debacle.
Rich, a wealthy New Yorker and Libertarian-leaning political activist, has made his mark by buying his way into South Carolina politics, and the list of campaign contributions made by him through various LLC’s and front organizations is long and well documented. One of Rich’s biggest issues is “school choiceâ€, a misnomer if ever their was one. Rich envisions a school system that’s been entirely privatized, with income or property tax credits for parents to move their children to private schools.Â
Howard Rich, a New York-based millionare who has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in pushing his Libertarian political agenda in South Carolina in spite of neither living in the state or owning property here. The push for the privatization of the state's school system is one of many efforts he has helped to fund.
It’s not surprising then that one of the largest local recipients of Howard Rich’s money, State Rep. Joey Millwood (R-Landrum), introduced a bill earlier this month calling for an independent audit of all local school districts as well as the state Department of Education. According to the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, Millwood received at least $50,000 dollars from Rich and his associates and had beneficial “advocacy†mailings from the SCRG and related group Conservatives in Action sent to voters on his behalf, and during his campaign last year, he tirelessly advocated Rich’s private school tax-credit scheme.
Now that he’s a freshman Representative, Millwood is determined to show Mr. Rich that all that money bought him something meaningful. Millwood has all but admitted that his audit bill is the opening salvo in the school debate, and one can’t help but feel that his real intention here is to score some political points by exploiting a real issue and using it to further an extremist agenda. There’s certainly some waste to be found in South Carolina schools, but Millwood and groups like SCRG want to use the waste to further their anti-public school crusade. Essentially, they wish to throw out the baby with the bathwater.
South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, left, with then-candidate for State Representative for District 38 Joey Millwood. Millwood took some $50,000 in campaign donations from Howard Rich-backed political organizations in 2008, and handily won the election. Among his first actions? Pushing for an audit of the public school system and advocating a Rich-backed program to publically fund private schools.
We must be wary of those who stand beside us to decry this legitimate case of attempted misspending of public school money. If a person stands to give a speech about public school spending, and talks endlessly about taxpayer money while rarely ever mentioning students or their needs, it’s a safe assumption that that person doesn’t really give a damn about schools. They’re there to complain about “their†money. The danger here is in taking this thing too far.
If we allow those who don’t truly believe in public education to take over this debate, we will be making a grave mistake. These people smell blood in the water, and it’s incumbent on the people in this dispute who do believe in public education to keep the current problems with District 7 in perspective. If we fail to do this, and the Howard Riches and Joey Millwoods in the state have their way, we soon may find that we have no public school system to complain about.
Christopher George is a local blogger, you can read more of his stuff at Flying Oskar.
Christopher George
wow. theinly-veiled anti-semitism, a pro-administration and anti-parent approach to education, selective concern aboutmoney in politics and a round about defense of spoils style wasteful spending.
you sound REALLY committed to education!
Ahhh Steve, it is a great leap to equate citizen outrage with being led blindly to school choice.
White kids already have some school choice being that they are a minority in District 7. They may choose their “middle school” or junior high. If there were another Senior High that would be horse of a different color.
Rex favors school choice as does Super White.
Frankly, you show your scorn for the masses as you worry about their judgment were they to be confronted with the warts of school choice.
Your fear of a Yankee Carpetbagger has dimmed your normally sharp focus.
What started as an interesting piece wandered to a mish mash of confusion.
I did read it twice though.
Thanks
Mcluckk
k…for someone who read it twice. You apparently never bothered to notice that Steve didn’t write it, but what do I know, I’m just the guy afraid of yankee carpetbatters
Also, White and Rex favor school choice within the public school system, a far cry from Rich’s radical school privatization plan.
opps carpetbaggers
not surprised: What’s anti-semitic in Chris’ story? It’s about a clandestinely funded group trying to capitalize on a specific set of actions in one local school board to push their private agenda at the state level. It’s also about how that same money has helped to fund the campaigns of local politicians who immediately set out to push the same agenda.
The only thing thinly veiled here is your attempt — using an anonymous posting name and a fake e-mail address to leave it — to change the focus of the conversation by bizarrely claiming antisemitism in a story that never even mentions faith.
mcluckk: I didn’t write it. My name isn’t on the byline, and the title of the post is Flying Oskar — Chris’ weekly column here at the Spark — and at the end there’s an ID stating who Chris is and where you can read his blog. Forgive me if I submit that you didn’t read any of it too closely if you didn’t pick up those elements.
“Ahhh Steve, it is a great leap to equate citizen outrage with being led blindly to school choice.”
I agree. Anyone who would try to mistake the two and try to tie them together is obviously biased. Which is exactly what Chris is pointing out: South Carolinians for Responsible Government is trying to make that exact case to further their privately funded political agenda. The two aren’t the same, but SCRG is trying to make that case — just check out their blogs and YouTube channel.
SCRG is funded by an extremely wealthy person who sees S.C. as his own personal political playground for Libertarian theory. He’s not a carpetbagger, as that would imply that he was actually invested in the state, either living here or owning business here. Rich has made it clear he has no investment in the state at all.
Think about that: Rich isn’t even trying to be part of the State’s community, yet he’s trying to influence how public education works in this state. Not with good ideas or by creating foundations that benefit students directly, mind you, but with donations of cold, hard cash to the people he thinks will push his agenda.
He’s playing with our politics not because he cares about South Carolina, but because it’s relatively easy to do so given the state’s political landscape. He’s hardly made a secret of this, and has as much as admitted to it in interviews.
All Chris is doing is saying that it’s pretty cheap for anyone to do that, and to distort the reality to further their personal agenda. I’m glad you agree with him on principle.
Ok, I feel dumb. My apologies to both of you.
I do agree with Chris on principal as you pointed out.
Mcluckk
“wow. theinly-veiled anti-semitism, a pro-administration and anti-parent approach to education, selective concern aboutmoney in politics and a round about defense of spoils style wasteful spending.
you sound REALLY committed to education!”
As opposed to the pro-privatization, anti-poor approach? That’s right, public education is the worst thing that ever happened to human civilization. Sorry, I forgot.
As far as money, there are problems all around, but the Howard Rich situation is especiallly concerning because as Steve points out, he has no vested interest in this state other than to use it as a laboratory for his extremist libertarian political experiments.
I re-read my column just to be sure, but I didn’t find any point where I said I support wasteful spending. In fact, what I actually wrote was: “There’s certainly some waste to be found in South Carolina schools, but Millwood and groups like SCRG want to use the waste to further their anti-public school crusade. Essentially, they wish to throw out the baby with the bathwater.”
I don’t mind quoting myself for someone who obviously didn’t read what I wrote the first time.
Lastly, anti-semitism? Really? Even when I’m such a huge Jon Stewart fan? Oh well.
Jon Stewart? Jewish? Never thought about it.
Howard Rich? Jewish? Never thought about it.
Should I?
mcluckk: Exactly. I don’t see how Rich’s faith is even relevant to the discussion. I don’t have the faintest idea if he’s Jewish, Christian, atheist or agnostic. He could be a practicing Hindu for all I know. The facts don’t change.
Rich’s group does want to put tax-payer money in the hands of private schools, including religious schools, and they’ve definitely tried to encourage activism and support among those who want the public to foot to the bill to their send kids to private religious schools. But I’ve never gotten the impression there was a theological motivation at work, just a political one.
I suppose there will always be a knee jerk reaction from some quarters.
While activism has become more sophisticated it brings with it disturbing aspects.
“wow. theinly-veiled anti-semitism, a pro-administration and anti-parent approach to education, selective concern aboutmoney in politics and a round about defense of spoils style wasteful spending.
you sound REALLY committed to education!â€
I just thought i would run that comment into the ground. Now its dead.
Howard Rich’s involvement in SC politics is scary. He just throws money down and buys our politicians to further his personal, political and more than likely monetary interest. Come to think of it, he does sound like a “Yankee Carpetbagger”.