Comments for Forgotten S.C. http://blog.postandcourier.com/forgotten-sc South Carolinians live in two different worlds, one that mirrors the national average, and one forgotten by many of the state’s improvements in education, health and economic opportunity. Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:52:32 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 Comment on Whatever happend to Ty”Sheoma by dpardue http://blog.postandcourier.com/forgotten-sc/2013/03/25/happend-tysheoma/comment-page-1/#comment-184 dpardue Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:52:32 +0000 http://blog.postandcourier.com/forgotten-sc/?p=219#comment-184 Thanks for the well reasoned response. Does anyone else have any response or thoughts? Thanks for the well reasoned response. Does anyone else have any response or thoughts?

]]> Comment on Whatever happend to Ty”Sheoma by Rick Whitlock http://blog.postandcourier.com/forgotten-sc/2013/03/25/happend-tysheoma/comment-page-1/#comment-183 Rick Whitlock Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:31:59 +0000 http://blog.postandcourier.com/forgotten-sc/?p=219#comment-183 Some of the subjects that you address are concerns of mine as well. Shall we start with healthcare, and I will make this comment first. There are a lot of people who are gaming the system from the high end to the lower end and this drives up the cost of healthcare for everyone. You add in the fraud and corruption and this reaches unbelievable numbers. The government, in general, does a poor job in monitoring the deserving people in this areas and opts to throw taxpayer money at the problem, then, that is what Politicians (in general), do, instead of being good stewards of the taxpayer's money, or act in a business environment instead of a political environment. When is the last time that someone in healthcare, or government, pointed out that you can buy the same prescriptions (same name-brand) from legitimate Canadian companies, for a lot less than what we get charged in the U. S. I used to buy my healthcare from an agent who could write Blue Cross Blue Shield in NC and SC; SC premiums were double what NC premiums were for the same coverage. Maybe someone will finally look into why one insurance company seems to have a lock on SC, and why SC does not invite more competition into the state. As it relates to Education, again, we can spend our resources in better ways to educate. More government intervention usually results in more regulations, more administrative personnel, and very little ends up with the better educating the children. I will refer you to the Fox Special on changing Education that Juan Williams hosted. It interviewed and reported on four schools in different parts of the country that had gone to educating with technology (laptops) and the results in graduation rates resulted in top performances for each of these schools in their respective states. The Arizona school reported that they did not seem any significant differences in learning with students who came from minority families, or from low-income situations.The school in Mooresville, NC provided all of their students with Apple Computers (starting in the 3rd grade) during a time when they had cutbacks in their budgets and their graduation rate improved to #2 in NC. Keep in mind, cosmetics of a building does not insure education. In closing on the education topic, I think most people will agree that parent (s) have to step up to the plate as well; we all usually get what we put into things. I saved the economic topic to last, as the success of the first two topics would have some significant effect on our economic situation, especially education. Certainly, the more educated, better educated our citizens become will attract companies to the state. Unfortunately, the folks in Washington seem at ease in putting forth more regulations that discourages industry and new start-ups; then we can't all be Politicians living in Washington, making six figure salaries, and telling the rest of us how to live. My hope is that better educated voters, will lead to better informed voters and the culture in Washington can change. Remember these folks in Washington are suppose to be working for us, the voters. Once again, we usually get back what we put into things. Some of the subjects that you address are concerns of mine as well. Shall we start with healthcare, and I will make this comment first. There are a lot of people who are gaming the system from the high end to the lower end and this drives up the cost of healthcare for everyone. You add in the fraud and corruption and this reaches unbelievable numbers. The government, in general, does a poor job in monitoring the deserving people in this areas and opts to throw taxpayer money at the problem, then, that is what Politicians (in general), do, instead of being good stewards of the taxpayer’s money, or act in a business environment instead of a political environment. When is the last time that someone in healthcare, or government, pointed out that you can buy the same prescriptions (same name-brand) from legitimate Canadian companies, for a lot less than what we get charged in the U. S. I used to buy my healthcare from an agent who could write Blue Cross Blue Shield in NC and SC; SC premiums were double what NC premiums were for the same coverage. Maybe someone will finally look into why one insurance company seems to have a lock on SC, and why SC does not invite more competition into the state.

As it relates to Education, again, we can spend our resources in better ways to educate. More government intervention usually results in more regulations, more administrative personnel, and very little ends up with the better educating the children. I will refer you to the Fox Special on changing Education that Juan Williams hosted. It interviewed and reported on four schools in different parts of the country that had gone to educating with technology (laptops) and the results in graduation rates resulted in top performances for each of these schools in their respective states. The Arizona school reported that they did not seem any significant differences in learning with students who came from minority families, or from low-income situations.The school in Mooresville, NC provided all of their students with Apple Computers (starting in the 3rd grade) during a time when they had cutbacks in their budgets and their graduation rate improved to #2 in NC. Keep in mind, cosmetics of a building does not insure education. In closing on the education topic, I think most people will agree that parent (s) have to step up to the plate as well; we all usually get what we put into things.

I saved the economic topic to last, as the success of the first two topics would have some
significant effect on our economic situation, especially education. Certainly, the more educated, better educated our citizens become will attract companies to the state. Unfortunately, the folks in Washington seem at ease in putting forth more regulations that discourages industry and new start-ups; then we can’t all be Politicians living in Washington, making six figure salaries, and telling the rest of us how to live. My hope is that better educated voters, will lead to better informed voters and the culture in Washington can change. Remember these folks in Washington are suppose to be working for us, the voters. Once again, we usually get back what we put into things.

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