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  Edgefield Republican Women host candidates for US Congress and State Superintendent of Education web posted March 19, 2010  JOHNSTON – The
Edgefield County Republican
Women held their third planning meeting with two guest speakers, Jeff
Duncan, candidate for the 3rd Congressional District, and Kelly Payne
who is seeking the seat for State Superintendent of Education. After
covering the initial business of the meeting, Mary Alice Pettigrew
turned the floor over to the candidates who gave a short summary of the
platforms and then took questions from the attendees.Sate Rep. Jeff Duncan (Left) was first and stated he was a born and raised South Carolinian, husband and father of three boys, a small business owner, and Chairman of the House Agricultural and Natural Resources Committee. Rep. Duncan got straight to the point of where he stands in his politics saying the way he voted when he first entered the House in December of 2002, “and the way I voted this morning (on the state budget) is exactly the same. I’ve got a very consistent voting record in Columbia, and one I’m very proud of. I think if you look at my record, you’ll like what you see.” Fiscal conservatism and a push for smaller government. Rep. Duncan said one of the reasons he was running for Congress is his three sons. “The government is growing so fast. It’s out of control,” he said adding that the federal government is passing on a tremendous amount of debt to the next generation and beyond. “Somebody has to stand between the taxpayer and government and say enough is enough. I think that’s the role of the United States Congress.” Duncan said the spending has the be stopped as it is unsustainable and “we must stop the growth of government.” He said that he did not see how the federal government has the Constitutional authority to own majority shares in private businesses such as General Motors and AIG. Touching on the Healthcare bills being discussed in the US House, he said there was no transparency in the way the House is handling the vote on a Sunday. He also stated that if the Democrats are able to pass the bill he would take to the floor of the US House at every opportunity and speak on its repeal. “That’s one thing I can do.” He compared it to trying to break a big rock, “you have to keep pounding on it over and over and hitting the same spot. I will do that.” Energy independence is something that is a necessity, “I believe in American solutions to American energy issues,” Duncan said. He explained how offshore drill can be accomplished by temporary rigs and then piped inland which would not interfere with tourism and aesthetic objections. “Green lighting” four nuclear plants planned for South Carolina is a step in the right direction in power generation. Fast tracking the approval for those plants would create 16,000 jobs in South Carolina, “just like that,” he said snapping his fingers. During the question and answer period one man asked what would be “the top three things” he would do to help small businesses. “I would do what Ronal Reagan did when he came in under a similar economic situation.” Duncan explained that was to cut taxes, lifted the regulatory environment that businesses operate in, “and get government out of the way as much as we can.” In other matters such as curtailing illegal immigration Duncan said he supported a guest worker program to help farmers and securing the border. “Some people say it’s a 700 mile border and we can’t do it.” An idea he scoffed at saying the Untied States fought two wars in WWll in the Pacific and the Atlantic with two enemies. “We’re Americans; we can do anything we put our minds to. Don’t tell me we can’t secure our borders.” In closing Rep. Duncan asked for continued support of Sen. Shane Massey who announced he was bowing out of the race for Congress. “He’s doing a great job for you in Columbia, and I am going to miss him on the campaign trail because we are so closely aligned, but keep sending him back to the Senate because he’s going to do great things.”  Next to speak was
Kelly Payne (Left), a high school teacher who said it is
time that teachers have a voice in the way the education system in
South Carolina is run. Mrs. Payne said that she has seen teacher’s
voices being drowned out as more and more levels of bureaucracies and
taxpayer-funded lobbyists were running the current system rather than
reaching out to the teachers who are dealing with the problems in the
classrooms.Payne said that South Carolina schools have the highest dropout rate and rank next to last in SAT scores which is evidence of the problems and the status quo was not working. “I see a lot of good in the state,” she said. The programs that are working should be emulated statewide and those that are not should be abolished. Mrs. Payne said that she was against social promotions which does more harm to the student, though it may help the particular school district in yearly progress reports. “That’s not right,” she said, “and it’s not helping anyone.” The students generally fall further behind and eventually drop out and the practice is a disservice to the students. She said she opposed the stimulus package sought and passed by the Obama administration adding that there is no proof it saved or created any jobs in teaching. “They laid off 1,400 teachers,” she said, “and next year the projections are, I think Dr. Rex said, between two and three thousand teachers. So I want to know, where did the $8.4 billion go? That’s a lot of money and less than half of it went to the classroom.” Payne said that of every dollar allocated to the school systems, only 44 cents makes it to the classroom. The lions share goes to bureaucracies and administration, which should see the largest cuts, not teachers. She said that she would seek an audit of the entire state department of education all the way down to the local school districts to find duplicated processes, waste, and programs that do not work and eliminate them. Although Mrs. Payne said she was very “pro public education, I am in support of universal school choice including the tax credit and vouchers because I want what is best for the kids.” Alluding to an article in Newsweek that stated, “we must fire the bad teachers”, she read how New Orleans turned their school systems around from one of the worst in the nation to being one of the most accountable in a short period of time. “They were able to do this because, as you know because of Katrina, it was completely wiped out. If they can do this, we can do it in South Carolina.” Summing up her platform Mrs. Payne said she was for, “complete transparency, accountability for teachers, principals, administrators, and school districts, collapsing the funding stream giving local districts more flexibility is use of funding at the local level, and allocating 70% (of funds) or more to instructional spending and literacy.” One question from the floor from a teacher regarded the PASS test, which the teacher said was “completely useless” in finding the weak spots in a student’s education that need work. Mrs. Payne said she agreed and felt that tests that provide immediate results are the best indicators of the area a student is lacking so it can be addressed to aid the student to complete their education. Another question of students being classified by the school systems as college bound or technical in the 7th and 8th grade regardless of their class choices by interests in high school seemed arbitrary. “Our son wanted to take a particular class, signed up for it, and was told he didn’t need it because he wasn’t going to go to college. As it turns out, he’s the only one of our children that is attending college full time at this time. That just didn’t seem very American to me.” Mrs. Payne said that was a result of tracking, “Which is never good”. She said she supported students being able to take classes in both the technical aspects of education as well as college preparatory classes. “We all know that when you are in high school you’re going to change your mind. You don’t know what you’re going to do sometimes in college,” she said. Giving students an opportunity to choose classes that overlap both aspects (college prep of vocational) should be available to all students, “not being ‘tracked in’ to one or the other.” She said 70% of students “pushed” into college classes end up dropping out in the first year of higher education. “We need to be preparing them to go out into the workforce,” as well as a push towards college. “Right now we have one track, going to college.” A former teacher stated that one of the problems she saw confronting teachers in the early grade levels, K through 3, should be focusing on teaching reading, but it is not required that the teacher have those qualification to teach. “I agree”, Mrs. Payne said. “I think every teacher, be it elementary, middle school, and even high school, should be a literacy expert.” Providing students with the skills to advance in their education is the first step in improving school progress and graduation rates. Due to the hour Mrs. Pettigrew called for the close of the meeting and attendees were able to mingle with the candidates and ask individual questions. The next meeting of the Republican Women will be held on April 15, again at the Pine Ridge Country Club. Mrs. Pettigrew said earlier that she was very excited to see younger people attending the meeting, including two 18-year-olds, getting involved in local politics. Mrs. Pettigrew mentioned that Edgefield Daily (in co-operation with The Citizens News) was the only local media outlet to cover the event. “I want to thank you for that,” she said. To learn more about the candidates you can visit their web sites. http://www.JeffDuncan.com and http://www.votekellypayne.com © Copyright 2010
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