Chuck Waters/Clarendon Citizen
State Ed Super visits Clarendon
South Carolina State Superintendent Dr. Jim Rex visited Clarendon District Two last week to speak about the future to the district’s faculty and staff.
Clarendon District Two Superintendent John Tindal briefly spoke about Rex and his accomplishment over the years.
He said that his stint as a teacher and coach only strengthened his desire to do good deeds for students’ academic goals in the present and the future.
“Dr. Rex has spent most of his adult life making a difference for the children, families, schools and communities of South Carolina,” Tindal said. “As a high school English teacher, football coach and higher education leader he has made public education his life’s mission.”
Rex thanked Tindal for his continued support over the past several years since his election.
His work, knowledge and overall stamina were important in Rex’s decision to run for state superintendent.
He knew having Tindal behind him, they would work well together and do great things for students of the county and state.
“He was invaluable to me during that first year,” Rex said. “He has been invaluable to me ever since. I’m so taken with his mind, his heart and his character.”
Rex began by saying that the beginning of a school year is a time when everyone is excited.
“It’s a common experience,” he said. “It’s a mixture of excitement, anxiety, fear and relief. It is an important annual event in this nation because it represents when we really come together collectively to educate our own … the next generation. Most of us realize how important that is.”
One important aspect Rex mentioned was the future of the nation begins with the education today’s students receive.
“We know beyond a question of a doubt our economic viability in the future, our quality of life in the future and increasingly our national security in the future is going to depend on what happens each and every school year,” Rex said. “Our future as a state, our future as a community and our future as a nation is going to depend on what this profession, the teaching profession, is able to do with this generation. What we do with them and for them, this one adolescence they have, will determine not just their future, but all of our collective futures.”
Rex referenced the well-known and extremely popular English novel “A Tale of Two Cities,” written by Charles Dickens.
The beginning of the novel reads “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
Rex used that statement as a guide for today’s academic and scholastic standing.
He said right now, there are some bad things happening that need to be improved; but there are also good things happening that need to continue on their course.
The state lost $700 million in the K through 12 budget in the past two years.
However, grades three through eight met or exceeded state testing criteria.
“There are a lot of negatives right now,” he said. “They are the worst of times and you know most of them. In the last two years, we’ve lost about 6,000 positions in our public school system. We’ve seen either the decrease or the elimination of after school programs and summer school programs. We’re obviously going to see some increase in class sizes and I know many of you are going to experience that this year. You’re being asked to do more with less. The challenges are considerable. There’s no doubt about that. We can’t solve problems unless we know the extent of them.
“But there are some good things happening also. Here are some of the best of times. In grades three through eight, the average student score for the PASS test increased in 29 of the 30 categories. That’s remarkable. This is a time when we’re losing teaching positions, we’re losing money, class size is going up and still that kind of performance is coming out of our teachers and our class rooms for our students.”
Rex said that there is much to look forward to in the future.
“There’s plenty of reason for optimism” he said. “I think the main reason I’m optimistic is I get a chance to see teachers in this state. I get to see what you’re doing in your class rooms.
“I’d put our teaching force in South Carolina, the 15,000 teachers we have, up against any teaching force any where in the nation. South Carolina is one of 18 states that are competing for the national ‘Race to the Top’ national grant competition. If we win, that will be $175 million over four years. I’m very optimistic. If we get that money, it will be another testimony to what South Carolina is doing. The ‘Race to the Top’ tries to identify a handful of states that will lead the rest of the nation in the 21st century in terms of performing and making public education more enduring. If this state is selected as a finalist, increasingly we’re finally being recognized as being on the cutting edge.”
