In the 2014 election, the post of State Superintendent of Education is open. The incumbent Mick Zais is not running again. By my count, there are 12 announced candidates - 10 Republicans and 2 Democrats.


You would think this many candidates would produce a lively and substantive discussion and debate. It's not happening.

First, the candidates. Let me begin by stipulating that they are all good and decent people who are running for this job because they truly want to improve education in our state. They all have different experiences and qualifications and I'm sure they will do the very best job they can in office.

For many years, I've been involved with a variety of education issues; I really care about this stuff, and I try to follow education developments in our state very closely. I have visited the websites of all the candidates that have them. I've read about their backgrounds and what they say they want to do to fix education.

Visiting all these websites is a bit depressing. First, they seem to all care most about asking us to donate to their campaigns. Second, they all have a bio section that tells who they are and a little about their involvement with schools. And a distant third is a few paragraphs that could very loosely be called policy - what they say they want to do in office.



So, I'd like to humbly offer 12 ideas for the candidates to consider. These are serious ideas that have been tried and tested in other states and have produced positive results.


1. Year round schools - adjust the vacation periods of students to reduce the amount of summer downtime. Studies show that students lose much of what they have learned over the summer.

2. Flipped classrooms - where students learn the material in the evenings with homework and the classroom time is reserved for individual teacher-based help and instruction.

3. International Baccalaureate degrees - an international learning curriculum that is comparable to other students worldwide in what they need to know to be globally competitive in the 21st century.

4. An individual learning device for every student - whether it is a computer, iPad or something else, these are the leaning tools of the future and every student should have one and know how to use them, and have access to high-speed Internet connections.


6. Radical freedom - give some number of teachers and schools radical freedom by essentially exempting them from most of the normal rules and regulations so they can experiment with new models and modes of leaning.

7. Move to project-based leaning - where students learn by working collaboratively on projects instead of following rote course textbooks and fixed lesson plans.

8. Bring in non-traditional teachers - because Bill Gates was a college dropout, he would not be considered "qualified" to teach computer science in S.C. schools.

9. Global online classroom exchanges - students in classrooms all over the world have access to computers and the internet. Use them to connect students in real time to learn together.

10. Try P-Tech schools - that extend high school by two years that includes highly focused job training coordinated with business that guarantee jobs to graduates.

11. Universal community service - so that students learn the value of giving back to their local community that has provided them with their education.

12. Extend child support from 18 to 21 years - for kids who are going on to college so their child support payments won't be cut off when they need the extra cash the most.


We should expect our candidates of Superintendent of Education to be talking about such things and not simply spouting empty rhetoric and telling us to "donate now."
