Jim Rex's plan to improve South Carolina's schools


1.  Dramatically accelerating innovation in our schools.
Jim is not a defender of the status quo.  He recognizes that South Carolina is making progress in the area of education, but he knows that incremental change will not get us where we need to be.  It's time for South Carolina to begin expecting, initiating, encouraging, and rewarding innovation in South Carolina's public schools. 


2.  Increasing choice within our public schools.
Jim believes that no child in South Carolina should be trapped in a failing program.  He believes that all parents Ð regardless of race, religion, socioeconomic status, ability to provide transportation, geographic location, or any other factor Ð should be able to send their child to the public school or program of their choice.  His plan calls for increasing choice within South Carolina's public school system, while at the same time standing firm against any plan that would drain badly needed resources from our public school system in favor of an untested, unproven, unaccountable, and unaffordable system of vouchers or tax credits. 


3.  Refining our accountability system to ensure maximum results and minimum testing.
Jim knows that accountability is absolutely necessary, but he believes that high stakes testing should not be dominating the lives of our parents, teachers, students, and school communities.  Jim supports reforming the Education Accountability Act of 1998 to reduce accountability testing to the minimum necessary to track progress and draw comparisons.  At the same time, he will work to make sure the State is utilizing the most appropriate, useful, diagnostic testing in the major subject areas in order to provide results more quickly and allow teachers to make instructional decisions based on the results.


4.  Elevating and reinvigorating our teaching profession.
Jim believes that we must commit to elevating the teaching profession, once again, in our society.  He knows that teachers are not the problem Ð they are an essential part of the solution to the problems facing public education in South Carolina.  As State Superintendent of Education, he will work to change the dialogue about the teaching profession in South Carolina and bring to an end the all-too-often unjustified criticism of teachers and their chosen profession.  He will work to recruit, retain, and reward the best and brightest and ensure a quality teaching force for the next generation.


5. Providing fair and more equitable school funding
Jim knows that "minimally adequate" is not an acceptable standard for South Carolina's public schools.  He is committed to working on a plan to provide fair and equitable funding for every school in South Carolina.