Haley decided to veto $95 million dollars in education spending for this year's budget. She says that her vetoes are intended to "emphasize school performance." I find it difficult to imagine how cutting money for education is going to help school performance in the long run. Public school teachers have already been having it rough for the past few years, thanks to budget shortfalls during the recession and the fact that they can not collectively bargain for higher wages. Now they have to contend with more line-items vetoes from Nikki Haley. Haley could have used these funds to give kids a better education and thus improve the vitality of the economy in the long run. However, she continues to drop the ball on public education while supporting school choice, which turns over education to the private sector. Unfortunately, this idea will further enhance the inequality between rich and poor students because most of the rich students would use such a credit to transfer to a private school while a poorer student would not necessarily have the means to afford all the costs of the transfer. It is also noted that tax payer money would be going directly to supporting a for-profit enterprise of the school system. Funding public schools less is guaranteed to make them worse because the best educated individuals will no longer pursue public education. Lastly, there is no proof that a private school system is better. On a personal note, I went to Dorman High School and can tell you that I received a great education there because the teachers were devoted to helping us learn what we needed to for college. I hope that our South Carolina law makers realize that public schools should receive more funding!
Written by:
Hirak Pati
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