| GOP attacks school tax plan AIKEN - South Carolina Republicans fired back at state Superintendent and U.S. Senate hopeful Inez Tenenbaum's proposed 1-cent sales tax increase Friday, blasting the Democrat's plan and proposing to give parents more choice for their children's education. Gov. Mark Sanford said Mrs. Tenenbaum's request to dump an additional $457 million into the state's public schools won't help with poor graduation rates and the dismal results recorded under the federal No Child Left Behind law. Instead, Mr. Sanford said giving parents more choices, such as school vouchers and other reforms, would help solve the performance problems of public schools. "We now spend right at $8,200 per student on public education in South Carolina, so it seems to me we've got a pretty clear choice - we can either keep pouring billions of dollars into the system, or we can reform it so that parents have more choices in the educational marketplace," he said in a prepared statement. The state's fiscally conservative governor said he opposes the tax increase for schools and wants to give more options to parents with pupils in public, private and charter schools, spokesman Will Folks said. Mr. Folks said the governor would address the issue in the upcoming legislative session. One of Mrs. Tenenbaum's Republican rivals for the Senate seat, Thomas Ravenel, said money spent on public schools in South Carolina hasn't brought improved academic performance. "Enough is enough already," Mr. Ravenel said in a prepared statement. "When are we going to realize there is an inverse correlation between the money we spend at the state and federal level and the results we are getting here in South Carolina?" Giving parents more choice isn't going to lift public schools out of a crisis caused by deep state budget cuts, said Department of Education spokesman Jim Foster. Only money will increase test scores and keep pupil-teacher ratios at the proper levels, Mr. Foster said. "You can't keep cutting away school resources and expect to see improvement," he said. A key Republican legislator favors more money and more parental choices. "I'm in favor of a combination of giving education more money and giving parents more choices," said state Rep. Roland Smith, R-Langley, the chairman of the K-12 subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee. "Obviously we did not fund education to the level that I feel we should." PENNY PLAN South Carolina Schools Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum has proposed a 1-cent increase in the state's sales tax to give public schools an extra $457 million next year. Her request includes $71 million for transportation, $22 million for technology and $10 million for early childhood development. Source: South Carolina Department of Education Reach Peter G. Gilchrist at (803) 648-1395.
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