Picking on the poor?
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 at 12:00 am
We wrote an editorial a few weeks ago about Gov. Mark Sanford, saying that many times he is unfortunately right about things.
We say unfortunately because there seems always to be something off in the way he delivers his message. At the time, he was wanting an audit of the S.C. Employment Security Commission and a few reasonable changes. The bit that was off was his threat to not apply to the federal government for a loan that would extend unemployment benefits unless he got what he wanted. The fund that pays benefits to South Carolinians out of work has been tapped pretty hard this year and was in danger of running out without the loan.
We say unfortunately because there seems always to be something off in the way he delivers his message. At the time, he was wanting an audit of the S.C. Employment Security Commission and a few reasonable changes. The bit that was off was his threat to not apply to the federal government for a loan that would extend unemployment benefits unless he got what he wanted. The fund that pays benefits to South Carolinians out of work has been tapped pretty hard this year and was in danger of running out without the loan.
The governor took an unreasonable step to go get a reasonable thing. The threat brought unneeded distress and alarm to people who are unemployed. In other words, the vulnerable in our society, mostly poor folk.
He’s done this time and time again, and he’s doing it again. Right now, he’s calling for the closure of USC Lancaster and a couple of other regional campuses of the USC system. You will see a letter to the editor that touches on this threat in today’s edition, as well as a guest column from the dean of USCL that appeared first in The Lancaster News.
We think USCL is an important and viable option for Chester County residents seeking post-secondary education. It’s cheaper than Winthrop, for one thing. It’s easier to get into. USCL is a two-year campus. It might get you a two-year degree, or it might prep you enough to advance to the main campus in Columbia.
USCL is an option for people here in Chester, but it’s a vital part of the life’s blood of Lancaster. We’ll bet some of the students attending it have no other option. We’ll bet good money some of the students attending that school walk to campus.
Neither Winthrop nor York Tech and its two regional campuses will ever be an option for a poor Lancaster kid who has to walk to classes. So we absolutely cannot agree that Sanford has a good, specific idea here. But he’s a smart guy. Every community doesn’t need its own college. But every community needs a reasonable option.
The problem here is the way Gov. Sanford often goes about making a point. His budget usually ends up being ignored, which can be a problem. His proposals take into account the nature of non-recurring money, while the Legislature tends to ignore the problem. The General Assembly’s approach is one reason the budget pinch we are in right now is so severe.
But to make his point, again, Sanford targets the most vulnerable in our society. He looks at the regional campuses, we think, from the state budget side. He sees what is spent on teachers and staff. On light bulbs and guys to mop the floors. He doesn’t focus on the kids attending classes, kids who need it desperately.
He did it earlier this year with the loan for unemployment benefits. He’s attacked poor, rural campuses before. When he makes such calls, the people in the attacked communities, who should be working on other things, do rise up and defend their campuses from their own governor.
He’s picking on the poor. It’s unseemly.
