A letter from former Secretary of Education Dick Riley
Dear Friends,
As we enter the 2008 legislative year, I'm excited to announce a new champion for public education in the state of South Carolina. RISE SC is an organization dedicated to improving the lives of South Carolinians through comprehensive and sustained reform of our public education system. Supported by South Carolinians from all walks of life – from classroom teachers to CEOs of major corporations to faith and community leaders to my friend, State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex – RISE SC will provide an infrastructure through which the voices of every citizen to whom public education is a priority will be heard.
For too long, South Carolina's public schools have been under attack from extremists who want to undermine the progress we have made. Schemes like vouchers and tax credits would take badly needed resources from our State's public schools and give them to private schools with no accountability for results and no guarantee of accessibility for all students.
The vultures are circling once again over our state as a new group of outsiders seeks to make South Carolina the Petri dish for their radical voucher experiments. In fact, when Utah voters beat back a voucher measure in their state last November, Internet millionaire Patrick Byrne made no secret about the fact that he intended to focus his attention – and his money - on our state next.
The year 2008 must be one in which we finally put the voucher issue to rest and the best way to do that is to secure the passage of Jim Rex's public school choice plan, as well as help move our public schools forward by supporting his other comprehensive reform efforts. Well-funded anti-public education activists are working overtime to defeat the Rex Public School Choice Plan, as well as his other reform initiatives. RISE SC stands ready to fight back.
Today, I am writing to ask that you become a friend of RISE SC and join our efforts to move public education reform forward in South Carolina by making a financial contribution. We must raise $250,000 before May 2008 in order to keep the voucher and tax credit scheme proponents at bay and ensure that we have the support we need to bring about real education reform in South Carolina during this Legislative year.
I hope you will take this opportunity to join the thousands of South Carolinians joining this new movement to improve our schools.
Sincerely,
Richard W. Riley
