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Who cares about AP/EOC testing? At the end of the day our state will still be 50th when it comes to education. So what if your kid is a smart guy in a dumb state!

The real question is where is the kid's priorities about taking a tour of USC today knowing darn well that it's the playoffs. Of course, maybe he wasn't expecting to be playing today.

The only consideration I would have made for Dreher traveling is to keep the start time at 7 or 7:30 pm so that the Columbia kids could stay in school most of the day and just drive the 2 1/2 hours after school. Really not that difficult. Say the game takes 2 hours and the drive back after a quick fast food stop (or a prepared coach to have subs, sandwiches, etc., for the trip home) and it's around midnight. They do it all the time in other sports so why should soccer be any different?



I get tired of people bashing the educational system in SC when they don't know what they are talking about, even in jest. Here are some points that show that education in SC is on the rise:

---For the first time in history, South Carolina students are scoring at or near the national average on nationally and internationally standardized tests.

---South Carolina’s 28-point gain in SAT scores leads the nation over the past ten years among states where more than half of the graduating seniors take the test. South Carolina also is one of only a few states that have increased high school seniors’ scores on the ACT college entrance exam over the past five years despite dramatically greater numbers of test-takers.

---The national report card “Quality Counts 2010,” published by the respected magazine Education Week, ranks South Carolina No. 1 in the nation for improving teacher quality and No. 7 for its academic standards and accountability system.

---“Diplomas Count 2009,” another national report card published by Education Week, says that South Carolina improved its on-time high school graduation rate faster than any state in the nation between 1996 and 2006.

---The National Council on Teacher Quality rates South Carolina tops in the nation for identifying and retaining effective teachers and dismissing ineffective teachers.

---The phase-in of full-day kindergarten has dramatically improved school readiness, with the biggest improvements made by minority students and students from low-income families.

---Education Trust’s “Education Watch 2009” reports that South Carolina’s minority and lower-income students have raised their scores and reduced achievement gaps on standardized reading and math tests and that achievement gaps in South Carolina are smaller than the national average.

---The state-created South Carolina Virtual School Program enrolls 5,000 students in more than 60 courses only two years after initial legislative funding. In November 2009, the Center for Digital Education ranked South Carolina No. 2 in the nation for its policy-making efforts aimed at improving online learning opportunities.

---“Leaders and Laggards,” a 2009 U.S. Chamber of Commerce report card measuring key indicators of educational innovation, ranked South Carolina No. 18 in the nation.

---Seven independent national studies have cited South Carolina’s academic standards as among the most rigorous in the nation. Most recently, the education research organization Education Trust gave top marks to only three states: South Carolina, Maine and Massachusetts.

---Charleston’s Academic Magnet High was named as the nation’s top-ranking magnet school in US News World Report’s 2009 listing of America’s Best High Schools. In a comparison of each state’s total number of gold, silver and bronze winners with its total number of high schools, South Carolina’s 22 winners earned the state an overall 18th national ranking.

---South Carolina ranks third in the nation in the number of teachers (6,499) certified by the prestigious National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

Saying we're 50th is like saying France is a great military power...it just ain't the truth.