Funding for K-12 Education to be reformed? Brian knows Education will be a top issue once again in this race

Funding for K-12 Education to be reformed?

With Education being one of the top issues we face during each election cycle I thought it would be good to update the people of District 16 about reforming education and it’s funding.

State Senator Wes Hayes during the fall of 2010 chaired the select Committee on K-12 education funding. “One of my focuses as a candidate for District 16 and education was to track the money coming into our district for our schools; so we thought it would be good to let everyone know what they are doing for us in Columbia”.

They met to consider changing the ways K-12 funding is distributed, their goal was to develop a revenue- neutral funding distribution method that would increase for impoverished students, students with limited English proficiency, students in the gifted and talented, students who do no meet state standards and also one that would recognize needs to fund basic operational and fixed costs.

This committee focused on the following issues in proposing these objectives and they are as followed

1.) Flexibility & Transparency-, Which would expand funds from a designated revenue source and require an online check registry to address transparency.
2.) Deregulation – Which would require the State Board of Education to develop regulations establishing a process for districts to apply for deregulation
3.) 4K- make available statewide for certain at-risk children based on poverty levels
4.) Teacher pay- Update the statewide minimum salary schedule by resetting the index to the fiscal year 2009 level and require the Board of Education to develop regulations creating a model for a optional teacher incentive compensation program
5.) District Consolidation incentives-, which provide temporary funding to address funding gaps, during a consolidation transition period.
6.) SC Charter School District- Address additional funding requests, distinguish between brick and mortar and virtual schools
7.) Replace the Education Finance Act- with a simpler system where the money follows the child.

I have been very passionate about education and this is one reason I served on the school board, I think I can still contribute, but on broader scale. This is why, I decided to run believe we must track every penny leaving Columbia that goes into our public education system.