5 ways to improve education in S.C. for little or no cost
When politicians in South Carolina start to talk about education, almost immediately it becomes an argument about money. By focusing on money, they are taking the ‘cheap’ way out – refusing to talk about improving education and instead resorting to the false choice argument of ‘spend less – spend more.’
Before we as a state wade into this political swamp of ‘spend more – spend less’ we should first focus on things that we can do to improve education that cost little or no money. This won’t fix our big education problems long term…but it’s at least a constructive positive step forward while the partisan politicians bicker among themselves.
If legislators really wanted to do something … they could take at least one of these five ideas, do the policy legwork and be ready to move on this when the legislature reconvenes in January.
Extend child support payments as long as children are in school. Today, the parent paying child support, usually the fathers, can stop paying when the child becomes 18 years old. Almost all do. This is precisely when the financial burden escalates if the child wants to go to technical school, college or university. The single moms are hit with a double punch: they lose the child support payments at precisely the time when they need additional money to help their child continue their education and achieve their dream. It would cost the state very little money to continue the child enforcement process for a few years and it will be more than covered by the increased tax revenues from the students who will earn more with their enhanced education.
Revoke the driver’s license for students that drop out of school before they graduate or reach 19 years of age. About the most un-cool thing that can happen to a 16 or 17-year-old is to lose their driver’s license or not to be able to get one at all. We continue to try a number of drop out prevention programs, many of which are relatively expensive, but this would cost virtually nothing to implement. Certain exceptions could be allowed for hardship cases and a number of states, especially Georgia, provide a good and effective model.
Give parents online access to their child’s school records in real time. Most schools in South Carolina have a computerized system for centrally tracking students’ records – attendance, test scores, teachers’ comments, etc. Parents should be given real time, online access to these records to help them better understand what is happening with their child in school. Teachers understand how important forging a partnership with parents is to helping children learn. I have seen this work first hand with my own children in their school and seen how this sharing of record and trading information via email can go a long way in building a real parent-teacher cooperative partnership. The cost would be minimal as it would only require providing access for information that is already being collected.
Increase usage of online courses and expand the offering for adult learning and lifelong learning. Online learning is a no brainer, and fortunately we in South Carolina are doing better in this area than most states. There is no one size fits all program as there are lots of options and models, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. The models range from individual courses offered online to entire schools online to even online school districts that are almost totally online. With virtually all of the models, the cost is lower per student as the usage increases thus the state would benefit from economies of scale if we moved on this on a statewide basis. Also, this is just the first step toward the goal of a customized individualized learning plan that fits the individual needs of each student.
Provide an educational laptop or other digital learning tools for every child. Unless you have been living under a rock, it is self-evident to you that mastering the tools of the digital age are as vital to education as is reading, writing and arithmetic. Several years ago, I led a group of people that created One Laptop Per Child / South Carolina with the bold goal of making South Carolina the first state to provide every child with an educational laptop or some other digital learning device. We raised over $1 million from private sources and put almost 3,500 in 15 pilot projects in schools across the state. An independent evaluation found that “dollar for dollar it is the single most cost effective we can make to improve education in our state.” Many districts are already implementing this 1 to 1 strategy (1 student 1 device) and it could be implemented statewide for less than 2% of what we are now spending on education. It’s time for the Governor and the legislature to step up and finish the job.
We are all tired of our state’s politicians stuck in simplistic arguments over more or less money as the key to improving education. More isn’t better, less isn’t better…better is better.
These are five good ideas that could be implemented in January of next year. Send this column to your legislator and tell them to get to work.
Phil Noble is a businessman in Charleston and President of the SC New Democrats, an independent reform group started by former Gov. Richard Riley to bring big change and real reform. phil@philnoble.com