Inez was a horrible Superintendent of schools here in South Carolina. She presided over the schools as we placed 50th in the nation in SAT scores.

@CardedForDissent: Beat me to the punch. This is a truly horrible move for anybody interested in consumer protection laws.

Agreed!

I also attended public school in SC and recall Tenenbaum becoming state superintendent after I had graduated high school.

In all honestly though, no matter who held the position, SC has got a long hill to climb in the area of education.

While the person at the top is generally the one who takes the most blame, there is far too much wrong with SC schools for Inez to have been the root cause. A boss is only as good as the underlings.

I guess I wonder...was she presiding when SC was 49th and falling, or 50th and climbing? Was she hired to fix things (either successfully or not), or was she part of the problem?

@mmmsoap: And, was South Carolina's spending/pupil going up or down when she took office? How does it rank with similar ratios to other states? What's the average age of their textbooks, and how does that compare to other US states?
Does the South Carolina school system even allow the teaching of evolution, or of pragmatic health education, while emphasizing - but not relying solely on - abstinence?
(sometimes, teaching is more complicated than simply switching the top chair)

@tgrwillki: why wasn't Ben nominated?

@CardedForDissent @tgrwillki:

Oh yes, everything boils down to the superintendent.

Disruptive students, students that don't care to learn, huge classroom sizes, no incentive for teachers, all of these things work in concert.

But there is a serious problem that the government absolutely cannot fix, and that is parenting. If parents are not involved in their student's education, there is no hope. Private schools and tutoring companies can succeed because parents HAVE to be involved in order for students to go those routes. Not to mention the increased cost provides incentive for the best teachers.

Did she pay her taxes?

@squidbrain:

Paying your taxes is sooo middle class.

@nucwin83: Except the parents who send their kids to private schools or tutoring are, de facto, self-selecting themselves as being parents concerned about their kids' education.
Comparing these kids to any other group is an apples/oranges comparison. Agree with your larger point that parents are the most important factor, though.

@undefined: I totally disagree with that. I worked for SC dept of ED for a bit, and saw the crap that Tenenbaum had to deal with firsthand. I think she did a decent job with the hand she was dealt.

More importantly, part of the reason South Carolina does so poorly on NCLB standards is that the dept of Ed under Tenenbaum opted for steady, rigorious progress in terms of meeting benchmarks.

Most other states opted for small annual goals the first few years of NCLB, with the hope that by the time the "final" goals were to be met, NCLB goals would be revised downward.

That's because everyone who actually has to interact with students, teachers and administrators knows that NCLB is hopelessly unrealistic for many districts and states.

SC was pretty backward long before Tenenbaum got there, but at least she tried. I think the state's education department made some really good progress, but of course, they were starting from a really low point to begin with.

Now if they can just get Sanford to stop blocking the stimulus money. I have friends who work for the state in education who've seen their salaries and hours cut already - some are even considering leaving SC, robbing the state of some of the few educational professionals they do have.

/end rand

I'm optimistic that Tenenbaum and Adler will be great additions to the agency--and especially hopeful that they will bring some much needed sanity to the whole CPSIA situation. http://tinyurl.com/d65yvn This is great news for consumers.