If You Believe in Public Education, You Must Be a Democrat

Welcome to Patch.Com, and this is the Dorchester County Democratic Party Chair’s “Blog.”

My name is Richard Hayes, and I am Chairman of the Dorchester County Democratic Party. The goals of this blog will be to educate the voters of Summerville and Dorchester County on the issues we face, and to give readers the information they’ll need to make informed votes during the upcoming elections in our area. 

The Democratic Party in Dorchester County supports good government, a government that stands with the people of Dorchester County. We believe in strong public education, funded Medicaid for children and our seniors, maintaining our infrastructure for the 21^st Century, responsible planned growth, and job creation by partnering with private industry. And we believe in fiscal integrity – balancing the budget -- but not on the shoulders of the middle class only!  Asking our hard working teachers to take a pay cut while increasing Governor aides’ salary by 30 per cent is just not right!  

Speaking of public education, the County Democratic Party supports first and foremost a strong and vibrant Public Education system. The Republicans on the other hand support vouchers for people to send their children to private schools. Democrats are not against private schools, just that is should not be paid with public tax dollars. School Superintendent Joe Pye has said himself that this would be a recipe for disaster. Not only would it gut the public school system budget, but it would create a two-tier school system in South Carolina and Dorchester County. Do we want to divide our County’s school system in the haves and the have nots – based on economic class?? A strong public education system is important to the future of our county, state, and nation. Everyone has a duty to support public education, whether you have a child in school or not. Shifting tax incentives to encourage students to leave the public system and allowing supporters to transfer their needed tax dollars to private school scholarships is a terrible idea - especially when our charter and regular public schools are struggling financially to exist.

The Republican Superintendent of Education Mick Zais has turned down millions of Federal dollars!  How many teachers is South Carolina going to have to layoff because of this action?  Even the conservative Post & Courier has suggested that he should reconsider this action that deprives our public school system of much needed funding.  Just this week Governor Nikki Haley said she will veto the state Senate budget proposal adding $105 million to K-12 education budget. The fact seems to be that the Republicans do not support public education—they are doing nothing to improve our 49^th in the Nation ranking.

We have good public education in Dorchester County – you need to know that Democrats will always be the number one supporter of Public Education.

Next – Medicaid and a Moral Budget. Until then, have a great week.   

Richard Hayes, Chair, Dorchester County Democratic Party