If you were in North Myrtle Beach, here’s what your Christmas lights might look like.
North Myrtle Beach, 12/22/2008 - View #1 - 1024x768 JPG
North Myrtle Beach, 12/22/2008 - View #2 - 1024x768 JPGh
Posts Tagged ‘south carolina’
Christmas lights
Monday, December 22nd, 2008Keep ’em out of trouble
Saturday, December 6th, 2008While I was glancing at the latest America’s Health Rankings, I noticed that South Carolina had both the worst violent crime rate in the nation and the second-worst rate of high school graduation.
So how related to one another are those two factors? Here’s a simple X-Y chart, showing violent crime rates compared to high school graduation for all fifty states.
Violent crimes vs. percentage of 9th graders who graduate high school
While correlation is not the same thing as causation, this chart certainly suggests that more educated states have less problems with crime. That’s something to think about when it comes time to decide how much money to allocate to schools.
Death and taxes
Thursday, December 4th, 2008South Carolina has some rather … strange … priorities. We’re in the middle of a crisis in the state budget, and faced with cutting vital services that might help South Carolinians survive this recession. A big part of our problem is that we don’t have enough tax revenue to keep our necessary services up and running.
Business was — you might say — booming this past weekend, as the state’s first sales tax-free weekend attracted throngs to gun shops.
A tax-free holiday for guns? In this budget climate we really shouldn’t be having gimmicky “tax-free holidays” on anything. if you wonder how we in South Carolina got into this mess we’re in, here’s yet another example.
Or is the tax-free holiday on guns our legislature’s response to this?
South Carolina has the highest violent crime rate in the nation - again! (from America's Health Rankings 2008)
I guess it’s cheaper than funding the police and the prison system …
Hat tip to Snead – even if he does cheer for the wrong college football team.
Not really a mystery
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008The Greenville News tells us about a report that says South Carolina’s colleges rate an “F” in affordability:
South Carolina got an “F” in college affordability on a national higher education report card released today, underscoring a concern cited by members of South Carolina’s Higher Education Study Committee.
Poor and working-class families must devote 34 percent of their income, even after aid, to pay for costs at public four-year colleges, according to the 2008 higher education report card, Measuring Up 2008, from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.
We have high tuition here in South Carolina, and it’s gone up quite a bit over the eight or so years I’ve been teaching. Why tuition has been skyrocketing – and it’s gone up a lot not only among the four year schools mentioned in the article, but at South Carolina’s two-year colleges as well – isn’t really a mystery. Look at state funding. While college enrollment has been increasing, state funding for colleges has been decreasing. Even before the massive budget cuts we’ve been having in higher education this year, the budget for our two year schools was less than it was eight years ago. (I assume that four year schools have similar issues.) So what do schools have to do? Raise tuition to make up some of the shortfall.
It should not surprise us that when we shortchange higher education, we end up with higher education that is more inacessible to those of us most in need of a quality education.
Edited to add:
Apparently, affordability is not graded on a curve. In the original report referenced above, almost every state joined South Carolina in an “F” for affordability. Probably for the same reasons, too.
More 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.
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”
The Plan
Friday, October 31st, 2008I’m not exactly sure why the pretty solidly Democratic Shrimp and Grits household gets bombarded with Republican mailers, but we do. I’m going to discuss one we got recently from our local Republican house member. It details a nine-step plan to make South Carolina better.
I’m going to start out with Step 2. (Why not 1? Bear with me …)
Eliminate burdensome regulations
South Carolina is not known for having lots of “burdensome” regulations as it is. What are we going to cut here – food safety? Air quality standards? Water quality standards?
Limit state spending
I’ve got to point out here that the state government – both the general assembly and the governor’s mansion – is controlled by the Republican party. Yet somehow, all South Carolina Republicans are brave reformers, fighting against the “big spending” … wait for it … Republicans.
Still, keep in mind that the Republicans here say they’re for reducing state spending. Let’s see what else they propose
Become energy independent
So now the Republicans are concerned with our reliance on oil? Remember, these are the same Republicans that ripped the solar panels off of the White House because energy independence was a liberal cause.
I do wonder if promoting drilling off places like Myrtle Beach is a winner. Sure, a majority of South Carolinians might very well favor offshore drilling somewhere, but I wonder how many South Carolinians support it off our state’s beaches. There’s not that much oil to be had out there (compare the yearly usage in the link and the total reserves), and there’s a risk of real damage to one of South Carolina’s biggest industries – tourism – if something goes wrong.
Increase energy efficiency
Now remember, #2 above was to remove “burdensome regulations”. But an across-the-board decision for all state agencies to reduce energy consumption by 20% is okay? And what does this do to agencies that were already operating efficiently?
Now don’t get me wrong – I’m all for energy efficiency. But I find it hypocritical to let industry off the hook, here, while putting a regulation on state agencies that industries would be up in arms over if it applied to them.
Improve our infrastructure
I agree wholeheartedly with this. Our roads are lousy, and there are no usable public transit systems in the state. Even the tourism industry is probably getting hurt by the fact that there’s no good way to get around our tourist attractions. (Been to Myrtle Beach lately?)
If we lived in a world where magic road fairies come and build bridges, trains, and roads while we slept, then we would be in great shape! But in the real South Carolina, improving our dilapidated infrastructure is going to cost money. Big money.
Workforce development in education
This seems more like a forced effort to rail against “bureaucracy” than an actual plan to do anything, but I wonder if any South Carolina politicians (Republican or Democratic) would consider a system like the one in Switzerland, where apprenticeships and technical training are common?
But even if there is too much “bureaucracy” in our education system, it’s unlikely that you’d be able to fire enough administrators to have enough money to upgrade facilities, let alone develop new training programs. So we’ll need more money.
Develop a read map
Well, just so long as it’s not a timetable!
Work for more cooperation, less politics
This is about as content-free a point as #8, but I can’t resist a little more snark.
Perhaps if we elect more Democrats there will be less squabbling between the Republicans in our legislature and the Republican in the governor’s mansion? Or, at least, the squabbles will be less important.
That’s the last step of the plan. So what was #1 on the list of nine things the Republicans want to do to make South Carolina better?
Think about it.
What’s the Republican solution to everything?
Cut taxes
Cut taxes! To get the money needed to rebuild our infrastructure (#6), we’ll … cut taxes! To get the money needed to update our state agencies with newer energy efficient technologies (#5), we’ll … cut taxes! To get the money necessary to overhaul the state’s educational system (#7) we’ll … cut taxes! And the magic road fairies will take care of the rest.
About taxes in South Carolina: Our taxes are rather middle-of-the-road. We’re not a state with a huge tax burden in the first place, so all we achieve with more tax cuts is busting our state budget – even worse than it is now. Balancing it, then, means that we’ll have to cut services.
And we have cut services. That’s a shame, because it’s during trying economic times that we need these services the most. Services like health care, well-maintained roads, and up-to-date educational facilities.
Remember, when you’re in the voting booth, who got us into this mess in the first place. It’s easy – they’ll be identified with the letter (R).
What’s the problem?
Saturday, October 11th, 2008Here’s a big reason I have trouble voting for Republicans.
Government isn't the answer. Government is the problem. It's time to empower workers and businesses, get government out of the way, and create jobs. That's my top priority.
This quote was on a mailer from the local Republican representative. For all I know, Phillip is probably a nice guy. The quote is typical Republican boilerplate – certainly not something he came up with on his own. But the attitude in the quote is what has gotten the state – and the nation – into the fix it’s in. If you elect people who sincerely believe that government can’t work, you will most certainly get a government that doesn’t work.
Popping a cap
Thursday, October 9th, 2008Here’s a story of a teenager from Aiken county who has some confusion about how to properly pop a cap in someone’s ass:
A Silver Bluff 10th-grader was arrested Tuesday afternoon for bringing a cap gun to school, officials said.
[…]
The Aiken County Sheriff’s Office, in cooperation with the Jackson Police Department, arrested the Jackson teen after a student reportedly tipped off adults that the teen had displayed the firearm in his waistband during physical education class.
Cops and court dates for a dumb kid who brings to school … a cap gun? It seems like potential jail time is a bit harsh for this sort of offense. But there aren’t too many details to go on in the story. (I can’t tell, for instance, if this kid tried to threaten anyone.)
I wonder what would happen if some kid showed up with a pointed stick…