Written By: Josh Kimbrell.
It’s no secret that public education isn’t South Carolina’s strong point. What to do about it has become a perennial debate and consistent campaign theme, with most solutions centering on cash. For most of the past two decades, South Carolinians have been battered by news of an education system that’s going from bad to worse, with seemingly no solution. All the while the answer has been before us, but we’ve ignored the obvious.
As most of y’all know, I’m beyond proud of our State. Few parts of this great Country have the sense of self, and the pride of culture, that has come to define South Carolina. The Palmetto State is home to patriots and statesmen who fight for freedom and stand on faith. In a State with such a culture, it is incomprehensible that we’ve consistently tried to reform education without the key ingredient of our identity: liberty. Educational reform has failed because the proposed “solutions” gave power to state government, not citizens.
I’m a firm believer that parental involvement is the key to reforming education. Unfortunately, the entrenched special interests, who control education policy in our state, have taken deliberate and consistent steps to separate parents from the education of their children. In so doing, the SC Department of Education has undermined their single greatest ally in educational improvement: the family.
This separation has succeeded because folks in Columbia have argued that more public funding, and greater state control, is required to revitalize the education system. Out of touch politicians and pundits believe that they, not parents, know what’s best for SC’s children. This philosophy of big government control is at the heart of the liberal agenda, which has manifest itself in a multitude of ways ranging from bank bailouts to healthcare takeovers. The fight for education isn’t, ultimately, over education. It’s all about freedom.
It’s now obvious that money isn’t the answer. In the past three years, South Carolina has spent $8,533 per student, per year. This astounding figure outpaces all but two of our southeastern sister states, while we lag all but Mississippi in educational achievement. The time has come to tell politicians in Columbia the same thing we’re telling them in Washington: when it comes to our faith, our families and our freedom, we know what’s best for us. In order to have true reform in education, we’ll have to reform the approach. It’s time to honor our State’s history of liberty, and lead the fight to ensure that power resides with the people.
Here is information on our upcoming “Freedom in Education” forum. This exciting, free event will be held on the beautiful campus of the Blue Ridge Christian Academy, in northern Greenville County, Friday evening, April 30th at 6:30pm.
The program will focus on the next major front in the fight for freedom: education. We’ll address South Carolina’s education crisis and how faith based, free-market, solutions are the answer for true reform. Our invited speakers include several Republican candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor, GOP Candidate for SC Education Superintendent Brent Nelson and the Director of Greenville Tech’s Brashier Campus, Dr. Chuck Morton.
This is the first installment in a series of two articles we’ll be providing on education, in preparation for our forum. We hope you’ll join us in the fight for true educational reform…the freedom of more than teachers and students is at stake.
God Bless,
-Josh Kimbrell
President & Chairman
Josh Kimbrell is President & Chairman of CEO Round Table of South Carolina. CEO stands for “Christians Empowered & Organized.” Part of the mission of CEO Round Table is “to promote a way of life that embraces faith, family, and freedom.”
