(Columbia) -- Governor David M. Beasley today convened the first meeting of the Education Oversight Committee, telling members that "South Carolina is counting on you" to make sure education reforms work.
 The Governor praised the panel, which is comprised of teachers, educators and legislators. Several of the committee members also served on the Governor's PASS Commission, which issued a landmark report last year that led to this year's Accountability Act.
 "South Carolina is counting on you -- students, teachers and parents," the Governor told the Oversight Committee. "This committee has an awesome responsibility."
 At today's meeting, William Barnet III, a Spartanburg businessman, was elected chairman. Clara Heinsohn, who teaches the fourth grade in North Charleston, was elected vice chairwoman.
 Mrs. Heinsohn is the Governor's designee on the panel, meaning she will serve on the committee in his place. The Governor also appointed William M. Gummerson, Ph.D., principal at Northwestern High School in Rock Hill, and G. Larry Wilson, chief executive officer of Policy Management Systems Corporation, to the committee. The law required the Governor to appoint one educator and one member from the business community. Governor Beasley decided to put Mrs. Heinsohn on the panel to give the educators a bigger stake in the committee's work.
 The committee was created as a part of the Accountability Act, which put together a system to measure the rigorous, back-to-basic, grade-by-grade standards the PASS Commission recommended last year.
 "Now comes the nuts and bolts and the hard, roll-up-your-sleeves work," the Governor told the committee today.
 The committee's meeting was held in Blatt Building 433, the room for the House Education and Public Works Committee, which the Governor chaired when he was in the Legislature.
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