Education in South Carolina

I've just returned from the State Teacher of the Year Banquet, where a Spanish teacher from Greenville won the prestigious award for 2011. Although it would have been a great honor for Lisa to win, we're both really glad she didn't win. Maybe in a few years, should she have the honor to serve again as District T.O.T.Y, she could manage to have a family and travel across the state acting as the "education ambassador."

I was blown away by the magnitude of the celebration. Excellent food, music (all students from public schools), an open bar (!), and some great conversation with Lisa's fellow district winners. Lisa met a lot of the district winners at a conference in Myrtle Beach back in February, and had made quite a few friends. It was nice to see her enjoying herself with her peers -- peers in every sense of the word. All are just as motivated as she is in the classroom, and I think it was rejuvenating for her to spend time with like-minded people. I certainly enjoyed seeing her connect with these great teachers.

With the good times comes some clouds on the horizon. Hanging over everyone's head was the inevitable budget problems that every district in the state will be forced to deal with (if they haven't already). Furloughs, pay cuts, supply cuts, lost jobs, bigger classes are just a few of the plethora of bad news our besieged schools have been dealing with.

We actually got to go the SC Statehouse (which I shamefully have never been to before -- it was stunning), where the teachers were recognized in both chambers of the legislature. With this came the revelation that the current budget level for public education in South Carolina is at 1995 levels. Unreal, considering the population boom since then. There aren't any easy answers, of course, and that was a point that was struck home by our own state Senator, Gerald Malloy.

Lisa and I got to speak with him about what his thoughts were -- tax reform on the state level as a start -- but he criticized Lisa's school district's handling of the funding surplus. Evidently, Darlington County School District uses the highest percentage of tax revenue allowed by state law. However, not all of the money goes into the yearly budget of the district. Some of these funds are held in a rainy day account for emergency use. Someone mentioned that it was recommended that the districts carry 5-10% of their budget in this account, or about enough funding for 3 months of expenditures. Lisa knew about this, and due to her frugal nature, disagreed with Senator Malloy about this rainy day fund.

I like the middle road (what a shock!) - use some of this fund now, and save some for a contingency. Replenish the fund when the economy rebounds. If it isn't "raining" in South Carolina right now, then what would they consider rain?

All in all, it was a great 24 hours. Although I was always proud of Lisa's accomplishments as a teacher, I've never been more proud than I was today.

News and notes

Time flies when you are home with a child. Well, not really. It has been a wonderful experience to be home with Wyatt. Tomorrow will be my last "solo" day home with him - Lisa is out of school and he will head to daycare on January 5th.

He is such a "good baby," meaning that he eats, sleeps and fills diapers with frightening precision. Usually waking only once a night, Wyatt goes back to sleep very quickly -- I'm rarely up with him more than thirty minutes. No major health issues, other than the cradle cap and eczema that seem to afflict our poor babies. Wyatt's skin issues are no where near Owen's issues -- but the bad stuff didn't happen until Owen was older (and the weather got much colder and drier). We're off to see the Allergist on Monday to launch a preemptive stike -- with medications, steroids, and so on.

My original intention was to do a fair bit of yardwork and exercise. I was really good about the exercise the first few weeks, taking hour long walks with the Zune. I tried listening to the Eric Clapton autobiography but it was really dreadful. Maybe a better read, but I doubt it. Not enough time spent on my favorite parts of his career -- Cream and Derek and the Dominoes. Oh well, I digress. I intended to do the yardwork with Wyatt in his stroller, but he doesn't like being in the stroller/carseat combo unless he is in motion. So after about five minutes, he would start to fuss.

Perhaps I'll be able to do some work this weekend and next week with Lisa home. Not likely with Owen home, but maybe we'll let him run amok in the backyard.

I've watched a lot of CNN and CNN Headline news while feeding the boy and the headlines are very dreary and depressing. While watching the ever-lovely Robin Meade this morning, the headline "crawl" had a procession of the most depressing headlines I've ever seen: Morgan Stanley lost billions last quarter, the USPS thinks that they will have the slowest holiday shipping season in decades, bad weather with many flight delays, Ponzi scheme bilks thousands out of billions, that creep govenor of Illinois, and so on. The only good news -- for most consumers -- is that oil prices continue to drop. I really don't want to watch any more news until the Inauguration.

I've also read three Alan Furst novels: Night Soliders, the Polish Officer, and Kingdom of Shadows. I'm not done with KoS, but the other two novels are excellent. Not really off-the-beaten path of what I normally read, but strangely refreshing. Furst looks at (for me) different angles of war in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s, from Eastern European countries. They are spy thrillers set in the darkest parts of the 20th century. Great stuff and I can't wait to read the rest of his works. It's been nice to have the time to read without falling asleep after thirty minutes!

Voting where my vote doesn't "count"

I've lived in South Carolina since 1990. The first election I participated in was in 1992, which began my long history of voting for Democratic presidential candidates. This won't change on November 4th when I will proudly vote for Barack Obama.

I've voted for Republican candidates on the state level, often because there isn't much choice. I voted for Mark Sanford a couple of times for Congress, as well as for Governor. I always admired his true fiscal conservatism -- sleeping in his office during his three terms in Congress, instead of renting an expensive home in Washington or one of its pricey suburbs. He routinely voted against his party's wishes, especially then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Perhaps this is why I continued to vote for him. As a governor, he has done some odd things that have irritated many Republican lawmakers and alienated him from members of both parties.

I voted for Strom Thurmond in 1996, probably because I was flush with good feelings about my fellow Clemson alum.

But I am acutely aware that on a national electoral level, my votes for Clinton (2x), Gore, Kerry and now Obama really don't count here in South Carolina. It's a strange feeling lining up to vote with people who are on the opposite end of the political spectrum than I am. Not that I want to get rid of the electoral college system, it just is odd living where you don't feel adequately represented.

That said, I will be there with bells on November 4th.