Mark Sanford’s War on South Carolina Teachers
Ali Frick runs some numbers and does a little reporting and concludes that Mark Sanford’s anti-stimulus posturing could imperial the job status of as many as 7,500 South Carolina teachers:
John Cooley, deputy superintendent for finance and operations at the South Carolina Department of Education, explained that the stimulus funds would help fill a 15 percent budget cut already inflicted on the school system. Without those funds, Cooley estimated that up 7,500 teachers (15 percent of the state’s 50,000 teachers) could be negatively impacted. But he cautioned, “I’m not going to sit here and tell you that we’ve reduced 7,500 teachers” or that all 7,500 will lose their jobs.
These kind of education cutbacks directly deepen the recession, by further contracting individual spending power. The teachers who see job losses or salary cuts suffer, but so do all the businesses they patronize and all those business’ suppliers. Meanwhile, in the long run the state gets a less-educated workforce, which means more inequality and lower average wages.
45 Responses to “Mark Sanford’s War on South Carolina Teachers”
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March 12th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Oh, for fuck’s sake, Matt. Read what you write, once, before you click “publish.”
March 12th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
And you think Sanford thinks those are bad things?
March 12th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Meanwhile, in the long run the state gets a less-educated workforce, which means more inequality and lower average wages.
But this is the preferred social order. Sanford is one of the few who are willing to accept and take modern conservatism to it’s logical conclusion.
If someone could come up with a decent table of income and asset distribution for South Carolina in 1859 I think you would find the ideal. Including of course the non citizen slaves. It should be noted that this is a conservative social urge being manifest, not an economic one. Obviously the rational course economically would be to take the money. Better educated population in the future. Less unemployment next month. Less crime in years to come. Few politicians are willing to draw the line in the sand and say something is more important than the economy.
Luckily most politicians won’t have to take this stand. The money will soon commence to dry up for government. The economy will be smaller but the assets and income will be far more highly distributed to the top. In the end it isn’t the amount that winners care about, it’s winning.
March 12th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
It’s South Carolina. Do you really think they’ll notice they have a less-educated workforce?
March 12th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Imperialing the job status of teachers sounds sort of interesting — although “imperializing” sounds more like the actual word. I envision it as some sort of procedure where certain jobs are placed under some form of “imperial juridiction” of some sort — like, if the senate established public schools of some sort in Rome, and it had stayed under senatorial control throughout the early empire, but then Emperor Domitian decided to imperial the job status of the teachers or somesuch. Or maybe if the local Daimyos of the Tokugawa Shogunate had established various schools, but the Meiji administrators decided to imperial them. I guess that’s not what Sanford’s doing though.
March 12th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Meanwhile, in the long run the state gets a less-educated workforce, which means more inequality and lower average wages.
Excellent! Less competition for the rest of us. Next we see South Carolinians sneaking across the border taking jobs from Mexicans.
March 12th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
Mark Sanford’s anti-stimulus posturing could imperial the job status of as many as 7,500 South Carolina teachers…
Wasn’t Lando Calrissian threatened with “imperialization”?
Lando: That wasn’t part of the deal!
Vader: I have altered the deal, pray I do not alter it any further.
March 12th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
So… the welfare of govt employees isn’t the thing this Sanford guy cares the most about. I guess he’s not a Democrat.
March 12th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Denmark imperils Imperial Germany!
March 12th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Speaking about imperialing people, could someone explain the crown?
Also, it shouldn’t have to be pointed out that TP isn’t exactly a reliable source, and they somehow think that the money that would be provided is free. If you see the end of the TP post with the bit from the mayor, you’ll see how loony their scheme is: it amounts to little more than a Ponzi scheme where billions are spent now with the effects to be dealt with by others down the road.
March 12th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Wow Matt, that “posturing” is really impressive!
Never was quite so aware of your psychic abilities.
By the way, Obama is now telling us that things aren’t all that bad after all.
Funny how he is starting to sound like Steele.
March 12th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Shut the fuck up, Lonewacko.
March 12th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
We are talking about a state where the management teams that came over to run the plants built to take advantage of the cheap labor also set up their own schools for their children. They brought their own teachers, too.
March 12th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Matthew’s brilliant economic analysis here is every bit as first-rate and deep as it usually is.
Meanwhile, it’s just fascinating the nontrivial fraction of “progressive” commenters to this post have decided that the best way to make their reasoned critique of Sanford’s decision is to make fun of the state of South Carolina.
March 12th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
“We are talking about a state where the management teams that came over to run the plants built to take advantage of the cheap labor also set up their own schools for their children. They brought their own teachers, too.”
Do you have a link for this? Just curious.
March 12th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
Can I have my job imperialized?
March 12th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
Are these teachers or Administrators
and yes there’s a difference…one is basically worthless
March 12th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Ike, excellent remark! The idea that administrators are useless goes, as I’m sure you’d agree, doubly in business. Getting rid of management, letting the workers take over the organizations, is, ultimately, the only way to go. There are many ways of doing this. I’m for expropriative taxation cause, like you I imagine, I’d sorta prefer to avoid armed revolution. But I’m sure you’d agree that such revolution might become necessary!
Or, am I misinterpreting you, and are you just mindlessly repeating dittohead cliches?
Meanwhile, let’s pity the state of South Carolina for being mocked – mostly by its brainless governor. Fortunately for the people, the legislature is used to dealing with the idiot. According to the State, the Columbia paper, “State lawmakers, who are planning the state’s $6 billion budget around spending stimulus cash to shore up health care and education, said they will go around the governor to request the money. The S.C. House speaker characterized the governor’s opposition to the stimulus money as disingenuous.”
Meanwhile, this is the state of play in that poor state:
“So far, Sanford has said he will accept federal stimulus money to provide the state’s unemployed with a $25 hike in benefits. The governor said he will reject funds that would require the state to extend benefits to unemployed part-time workers.
South Carolina has already accepted hundreds of millions of dollars in stimulus funds for law enforcement, public transportation and housing, much of it paid directly to local governments.”
The man is a GOP hero – a bigot, a lackey of the wealthy, ignorant, economically illiterate, a showboat. He’s a real prize.
March 12th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
But Matt,
What if every single one of those 7,500 teachers SUCKS AT TEACHING?????
Serious question btw –
You don’t even bring that into the discussion… why???
March 12th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
I could understand it if Sanford was in Wyoming with it’s 3.7% unemployment rate. But South Carolina’s is over 10%, the third highest in the country.
What a maroon!
March 12th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
Seriously, Matt. Any of your faithful readers will gladly offer their proofreading services for free.
March 12th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
Sanford isn’t actually an idiot, he just plays one on TV. If I remember correctly, he made his fortune as a New York real estate investor and then moved home to South Carolina to go into politics. I guess its worse that he’s smart enough to know better.
Offtopic, on tonight’s ER– I won’t spoil the details for any West Coast folks– Atal Gawande’s surgical checklist was actually a plot point.
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/01/productivity_and_medicine.php
March 12th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
What if every single one of those 7,500 teachers SUCKS AT TEACHING?????
What if they did? I understand the right has a fetish for firing teachers, but what would it have to do with anything? You guys don’t get this. You have no idea how unpopular your brand of bullshit is right now.
The caps seems to indicate frustrated screaming. John Cole in a comment said something to the effect that the Republican party is in the position of someone who has pissed off a significant other to the point where they should know that nothing they say is going to help the situation. This is entirely apt. Maybe you feel wronged, maybe you want to point out that they did stupid things to (here is where you go “What about Biden and his bankruputcy bill, huh, how about that!”) It’s not going to fucking help you.
The general shape of the discourse is “Republicans destroyed the fucking country”. That’s how the thing looks from a mile up. You can’t change this shitting on individual democrats. You can’t change this by getting a bunch of people on Meet the Press to bitch about earmarks. Throw tea parties all you want, if revolutionary fever hits it’s not going to be about fiscal discipline. You aren’t going to be happy with who the mob will decide caused this.
This ideology needs to own up to having some incredible blind spots. The min-archist camp that didn’t feel like they needed to exist at SEC wasn’t some fluke. If you ever want to make a comeback, there is some bitter medicine to swallow. You have to do what the democrats did in the early 80’s and start pushing back against bullshit that’s disguised as ideology and is really rent seeking. The democrats had things like trucking regulation. You have a crony capitalist, thieves den nested in there to deal with. There are still ways that a serious, free-market party could contribute to the discussion but you are nowhere bitching about unions and public schools while the world burns and you couldn’t prize say agri-business out of the party with the jaws of life.
It’s sad, shut the fuck up and regroup.
March 12th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
очень интересно…
Ali Frick runs some numbers and does a little reporting and concludes that Mark Sanford’s anti-stimulus[...]…
March 12th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Do they not teach spelling at Dalton? Seriously Yglesias, this is pathetic.
March 12th, 2009 at 11:40 pm
“So… the welfare of govt employees isn’t the thing this Sanford guy cares the most about. I guess he’s not a Democrat.”
You really just don’t grasp the situation, do you?
March 13th, 2009 at 12:25 am
Meanwhile, it’s just fascinating the nontrivial fraction of “progressive” commenters to this post have decided that the best way to make their reasoned critique of Sanford’s decision is to make fun of the state of South Carolina.
Fuck them. I’m a southern transplant, and I’m so damn glad no one needs to care what the south thinks anymore. Conservatives love Bill Cosby for becoming an old fart and telling black kids to shape up. The South is begging and crying out for someone down there to tell them what a fucked up mess they are.
March 13th, 2009 at 12:55 am
Next time SC wants to quit the union I say we let them. I just moved out of Columbia (SC) to rejoin the twenty-first century. If the people of that sad state reelect Mr. Sanford then they deserve what they get. Cut all federal dollars to the state; close all military bases… remember Fort Sumpter? No federal property is safe there while the loonies are in charge.
March 13th, 2009 at 1:30 am
When I took my wife on vacation to South Carolina last year, she thought she had entered a third world country. A place that keeps a large black population down instead of investing in their people to become something more than a crap pile.
March 13th, 2009 at 1:40 am
I was born and raised in NC long before the Yanks came down and started to take that state over. In fact, my family has lived in coastal NC for over 200 years.
And even we made fun of SC as a backwards, third world country.
March 13th, 2009 at 4:19 am
It’s not exactly a bold move on Sanford’s part, seeing as how his state legislature is just going to override him and take the money. But it does let him look good to potential supporters for his exploratory committee for 2012, no doubt.
March 13th, 2009 at 5:52 am
This for the guy who complains about spelling:
Only great minds can read this
This is weird, but interesting!
fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too
Cna yuo raed tihs?
Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.
i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it.
March 13th, 2009 at 7:38 am
Let us now add “ponzi scheme” to the vast list of things that ass4ahead talks of, yet does not understand.
March 13th, 2009 at 8:34 am
интересное…
Ali Frick runs some numbers and does a little reporting and concludes that Mark Sanford’s anti-stimulus posturing could imperial the job[...]…
March 13th, 2009 at 8:51 am
“cdnuol’t”, not “cdnuolt”
March 13th, 2009 at 8:55 am
Is Sanford’s game here to provoke a constitutional crisis? To put himself into the Pantheon of wingnuttery? Try to go around him to aid the people of his state and that is what could happen.
March 13th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
I RALLY LIK YUR SPLING ADN HOP YO KEEEP IT PU. Dude, such a smart guy, fucking slow down and reread what you type before you submit it.
March 13th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Wingnuts and spelling scolds, please leave the comments section.
When you fly out of Charleston, SC, you pass over miles of shacks and trailers. It’s absolutely shocking. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that concentrated and relatively dense an amount of poverty anywhere else in America, especially on the outskirts of a town with massive mansions and a shopping street that’s like a mini Rodeo Drive.
The public schools are almost entirely African-American, so that’s how Sanford can get away with neglecting them and possibly laying off teachers. All of the white families of any means whatsoever send their kids to private school. Every last one of them.
March 15th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
SCDP Rejects Mark Sanford’s Appointment of Richard Eckstrom to Oversee Spending of Stimulus Funds
March 12, 2009
SCDP Chair Responds to Sanford Appointment
Carol Fowler, chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, issued the following statement today in response to Gov. Mark Sanford’s appointment of Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom to oversee spending of federal money:
“South Carolinians have a right to expect careful scrutiny of spending from the federal economic stimulus plan. However, Gov. Mark Sanford’s choice of Richard Eckstrom for this task shows remarkably bad judgment.
“Mr. Eckstrom himself has been a terrible steward of taxpayer dollars. He has a history of improper behavior for which South Carolina’s citizens had to pay: he misused a state vehicle and he used state dollars to settle a sexual harassment suit against himself.”
In 2004, Eckstrom took a state-issued minivan on a 3,615-mile trip to Minnesota and charged $665 on a state-issued gas card along the way. Only when the media caught Eckstrom and broke the story in late September 2006 did he repay the illegal charges. In 1997, Eckstrom faced sexual harassment allegations and used $57,500 of state funds to pay for a legal settlement.
South Carolina Democratic Party
PRESS RELEASE:
http://schotlinepress.wordpress.com/
March 16th, 2009 at 7:16 am
Do you have any information on manifesting money? I’m interested on that subject.
March 18th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
IMPEACH GOVERNOR MARK SANFORD
2008 South Carolina Constitution
ARTICLE XV.
IMPEACHMENT
SECTION 1. Power of impeachment; vote required; suspension of officer impeached.
The House of Representatives alone shall have the power of impeachment in cases of serious crimes or serious misconduct in office by officials elected on a statewide basis, state judges, and such other state officers as may be designated by law. The affirmative vote of two-thirds of all members elected shall be required for an impeachment. Any officer impeached shall thereby be suspended from office until judgment in the case shall have been pronounced, and the office shall be filled during the trial in such manner as may be provided by law.
When the Governor is impeached, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, or, if he be disqualified, the Senior Justice, shall preside, with a casting vote in all preliminary questions.
http://www.scstatehouse.gov/scconstitution/a15.htm
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