Sing with me.
“Tom’s between two turtles…”
Tom and the turtles - 1024x768
“Sleepin’ like a log…”
Archive for November, 2008
Friday Cat: Tom Between Two Turtles
Friday, November 21st, 2008More bad news on the education front
Tuesday, November 18th, 2008Kellie sent me a few links from the Upstate on the worsening financial situation in our colleges.
- State Colleges Plan Layoffs (Greenville News)
- Greenville Tech considers four-day week to cut costs (Greenville News)
So, some colleges are cutting staff. One school is cutting salaries 10%. Clemson’s people face mandatory furloughs.
Something is rotten in the state of South Carolina.
One final point. Here’s a quote from one of the links above:
The state’s technical colleges served about 39,000 full-time equivalent students and got $171 million from the state in 2000, compared to 53,623 full-time equivalent students and $154 million from the state in 2008 before the budget cuts, Booth said.
So, we have more full-time students than ever in the technical college system, and we have to serve them with less money than we had eight years ago. Now, of course, we’re meant to serve them with much less money. The $154 million figure was pre-cut.
If you happen to be a student at one of South Carolina’s technical colleges and you wonder why your teachers might look a bit hurried … well that’s why.
Death of a thousand cuts
Monday, November 17th, 2008If you’re a South Carolinian, you should be aware of just how royally the budget for your state govenrment is screwed.
Since I work at one of the state’s technical colleges, here’s the bit that I want to emphasize:
The cuts have also affected colleges and universities. Officials at the University of South Carolina say they expect to have a plan next month on how to handle $36.9 million in cuts, but there are no plans for mandatory, systemwide furloughs, spokeswoman Margaret Lamb said.
USC’s not forcing folks to sit home without pay, but Clemson has. But you know who’s really screwed? The technical college system. We can’t raise tuition mid-year like the large schools can. We don’t have many fees that can be increased to make up for yet another round of budget cuts.
So if you care about having a workforce that can attract new jobs to replace those at plants who are closing their doors during this recession, ask your state representative what he’s doing to ensure that your local technical college remains open.
For sale
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
For sale. One antique Arizona senator. Complete with crazy Alaskan governor. Price reduced.
Close calls
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008Okay, it’s the night of the big election and the reports are pouring in. And to generate excitement, networks are “calling” states for Obama and McCain.
Here’s MSNBC, calling South Carolina for McCain:
MSNBC calls South Carolina for McCain!
While I do realize that Obama has a snowball’s chance in Hell of winning South Carolina, isn’t it customary for the winner of an election to have more votes than the loser?
Here’s CNN calling Maine for Obama:
Maine goes to Obama!
… with a grand total of three votes in! I know that Maine is a pretty small state, but … three votes decides the election? Obama by a 2:1 margin … literally.
I voted
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008I voted.
It was a rather odd experience, actually. The polling place I was assigned to was an elementary school – one in desperate need of a new building. They were also in deperate need of signs telling people where to go. Other than a few “Vote Here” signs pointing from the street into the parking lot, the only other obvious sign anywhere on any of the doors was a paper sign reading “EXIT”. After wandering the empty corridors of the school for a minute or two, I finally found out that the way to get to the voting machines was to go into the door marked “EXIT”.
Despite the talk of long lines and wiating around in the rain to vote, there was only one person in line ahead of me. There were two lines based on last name, and there were probably about eight people in the other line. Still, there was essentially no wait at 2 PM. (My wife, who was assigned to a different polling place through some stupidity at the local voter registration office, said she had to wait about 25 minutes.)
So get out there and vote, if you haven’t already!
Go vote!
Monday, November 3rd, 2008Tomorrow is election day. Whether you’re a progressive or a conservative, you should go over to your local polling place tomorrow and vote. It’s important, even if it means you have to go out in the rain.
That said, this is a progressive blog – and we here at Shrimp and Grits would prefer that y’all vote for progressive candidates. Candidates that support real heath care reform. Candidates that support (and do not mock in national debates) proper funding for science education – and education in general. I could go on, of course, but I’m on a short break while waiting for my lab to start.
Sadly, your vote (and mine) for the more progressive Presidential candidate won’t mean much here in South Carolina. Our electoral votes will almost certainly go to McCain instead of Obama. But there is a better reason to vote, and it has to do with this mailer I reveived the other day from the (of all people) Republicans in the State House.
The Scoreboard
Here’s where your vote actually will count for something. Tired of failed Republican governance and busted budgets? Then you might want to consider that “scoreboard”