SEEN BETTER DAYS. This old, dilapidated farmhouse sits in a fallow field on U.S. Highway 176 near Cameron, S.C. The agricultural community of just over 400 people has a poverty rate of 12 percent, about two-thirds of the state average. More: Center for a Better South.
NEWSTech schools responding to workforce needs
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher
JULY 3, 2015 | Part of what makes South Carolina so attractive to businesses is how the state’s technical colleges are able to provide a highly-skilled workforce quickly, state officials say.
Dr. James C. Williamson, system president of the S.C. Technical College System, notes that the administration of Gov. Nikki Haley has been “extremely successful” with bringing new business to the state, such as Continental Tire and Volvo.
“The flip side of that success is the expectation of a trained, skilled workforce each new project brings,” he said. “Educating and training the workforce to meet rapidly growing industry demands is a constant challenge for the S.C. Technical College System and our 16 colleges across the state.”
Every year, more than 250,000 South Carolinians get education and job training at the system’s colleges, which were started more than 50 years ago by then Gov. Fritz Hollings.
“At any given time, our readySC program is working with 125 projects across the state recruiting and training their initial workforce,” Williamson said. “And our Apprenticeship Carolina program continues to grow at a phenomenal rate. Since its inception in 2007, the number of programs has increased eight-fold from 90 to 746 registered programs. The number of apprentices is nearly 13,000 from a mere 777 in 2007. All of this comes together to provide a comprehensive workforce solution that sets South Carolina apart.
Trident Technical College, the largest of the 16 tech schools, works closely with local businesses and industries to establish U.S. Department of Labor-registered apprenticeship programs for youths and adults, according to spokesman David Hansen.
“These European-style apprenticeship programs are helping to grow the next generation of highly skilled workers for the resurgent manufacturing sector,” he said.
Other innovative efforts under way throughout the state include:
Nursing simulation labs, where students are able to develop competencies in a variety of health care settings with programmable, life-like mannequin “patients.”
Dana McAlhany, a simulation coordinator at Orangeburg-Calhoun Tech, has said that the mannequins are “smart” because they “blink and their pupils change when light reflexes. You can make them sweat, bleed, talk and cry. They have heart tones, breath sounds, bowel sounds and pulses in all of the areas.”
Having such modern, innovative tools allows students to practice what they’ll experience for real in hospitals, McAlhany said. “Here, we can turn the mannequin on and off and bring him back up if the students don’t do what they’re supposed to do. It’s a learning opportunity that they will probably never forget.”
Aeronautics training: Trident Tech is building a $79 million training center to help businesses like Boeing and affiliated vendors in the growing aerospace cluster. Having a central location to train the workforce is seen as a huge asset to employers, officials say.
Youth apprenticeships: Hansen said youth apprenticeship programs in manufacturing, information technology, culinary arts and hospitality are industry-driven. They provide long-term workforce solutions for industries that need trained workers. Most importantly, he said, the tech school can offer apprenticeships in just about any field in which employers are willing to hire and train people.
Infrastructure improvements: The Gould Business Incubator at the Southeastern Institute of Manufacturing and Technology on the campus of Florence-Darlington Tech soon will unveil a special room of 3D printers that can be used by industry clients and students to prototype products for everything from new technology to machines.
“This is very beneficial to our clients because they don’t have to outsource this work,” said incubator manager Ashley Dingle. “They have this right here at their fingertips.” Furthermore, it will allow students to be on the cutting edge in applications of immediate use in industry — which means jobs for tech students.
Williamson, the system president, said tech colleges meet workforce training and innovation needs every day.
“Our system strives to be nimble, quick and on point in meeting local workforce needs,” he said. “Our colleges’ programs and offerings reflect the communities they serve. It’s an approach that works and works well.”
NEWS BRIEFSVetoes, flag on agenda for week ahead
Staff reports | State lawmakers return to Columbia Monday for a special session to deal with Gov. Nikki Haley’s 87 line-item budget vetoes and to consider whether to take the Confederate flag off the Statehouse grounds.
At 1 p.m. Monday, the House will start with discussions on vetoes. The Senate, which has to wait to deal with vetoes until the House is finished, is expected to begin its session at 10 a.m. Monday with consideration of removal of the Confederate flag.
State. Sen. Lee Bright, a GOP flag supporter from Spartanburg, is expected to try to get his colleagues to back a measure that would put the flag question to voters. His efforts may delay the inevitable as media outlets report there are more than enough senators on the record who say they want the flag removed.
Haley pointed to an increase in “pork-barrel projects” and earmarks as reasons for many vetoes. Among vetoes of interest in the state’s $7 billion spending plan of state revenues:
- $5 million for water quality grants by the state Department of Health and Environmental Control
- $2.1 million for new positions at Clemson and its research and extension programs;
- $2 million to the state Election Commission to run the 2016 presidential primaries;
- $2 million for the “Certified SC” agricultural promotion program;
- $1.5 million to the state Department of Archives and History for building restoration, and $250,000 for architectural heritage preservation;
- $1 million for arts education;
- $1 million for the Medal of Honor Museum at Patriots Point;
- $1 million for the S.C. Aquarium;
- $875,000 for sports marketing;
- $850,000 for economic development efforts in Marion, Richland, Williamsburg and York counties;
- $712,000 for new positions at the state Department of Education;
- $500,000 for downtown Hartsville renovations and $500,000 for the Hartsville Center Theater
- $300,000 for a study of state employee salaries;
- $250,000 for the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition;
- $250,000 to renovate the Horry County Museum;
- $250,000 for improvements at University Center in Greenville;
- $125,000 for marketing for the Columbia boyhood home of President Woodrow Wilson
Fear must not win in South Carolina
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher
JULY 3, 2015 | In the midst of the pall cast over the state following the Charleston church massacre, you might have missed last week’s Miss South Carolina pageant.
Ten days after the shootings that left nine dead and shocked the world, the show went on in Township Auditorium in Columbia. What came out of it highlights the stuff South Carolina is really made of.
When 22-year-old Clemson student and contestant Daja Dial of Spartanburg was asked during the pageant about what should be done about the Confederate flag on Statehouse grounds, she said:
“It’s a new South Carolina. We have made so much progress and it’s time to take it down. As Miss South Carolina, I can lead this state into a new era. And that flag being taken down is representative of that. I’m in this moment now for a reason. God has made this happen for a reason. I think it’s time for us to show what South Carolina is really like.”
Later after being crowned the new Miss South Carolina, Dial went further: “Why have that still there when we’ve made so much progress. Let’s put it in a museum where it belongs.”
Dial, the third African American to hold the state title, channeled what many in South Carolina believe and what the world has seen since the June 17 shootings.
On July 6, members of the legislature will meet to talk about taking the flag off the Statehouse grounds following a bipartisan June 22 plea led by Gov. Nikki Haley. According to various media surveys, there appear to be enough votes to remove the flag, a symbol of heritage to some, but a representation of fear and hatred to more.
Steve Skardon, executive director of the nonprofit Palmetto Project, suggests to those who don’t want to see the flag come down that they won’t really lose anything.
“It’s not being abolished,” said Skardon, whose organization is coordinating a memorial fund to do good works that honor slain state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, reflected. “It simply says that as far as the state goes, it’s not appropriate for the state government to be using that emblem to represent the whole state.”
If debate heats up in the days ahead on the Statehouse floor and turns ugly, let’s keep the whole thing in perspective — taking the flag down doesn’t make it go away. It just makes the Statehouse grounds to be a more neutral ground without a hot-button icon vividly poking many people in their eyes.
We also have to realize that taking the flag down doesn’t mean the fear it inspires in some and hate it represents in others doesn’t make either vanish. In one sense, taking down the flag is easy compared to working together to curb fear and hate.
Through the years, the Palmetto Project has sponsored community forums across the state to deal, in part, with the diversity we have and racial issues that remain. Organizers worked to reach broadly in communities to bring people together to get to know each other, not talk about race.
All parents, Skardon says, have similar dreams — to have good schools, good jobs, safe neighborhoods and bright futures. But when neighbors — white, brown and black — don’t really know people who look different from them, they sometimes worry that somebody else might change their lives. In that environment, fear can grow.
“We all want the same vision for our communities, but we just don’t know that,” Skardon says.
What we have to do, just like people in Charleston have done in recent weeks as they mourned, is to come together and get to know each other better.
Creating broad community-wide dialogues — people just getting to know each other better — will make communities healthier and help stamp out the fear that leads us to the dark side, as the character Yoda noted in a movie: “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
Fear, anger and hate must not win in South Carolina. Our state is still mourning. But we’re also healing. Daja Dials exist here by the tens of thousands. As outsiders realize that, they’ll change their minds about the Palmetto State. And we’ll blossom, too.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report. Send feedback to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
IN THE SPOTLIGHTThe South Carolina Education Association
The public spiritedness of our underwriters allows us to bring Statehouse Report to you at no cost. This week’s spotlighted underwriter is The South Carolina Education Association(The SCEA), the professional association for educators in South Carolina. Educators from pre-K to 12th grade comprise The SCEA. The SCEA is the leading advocate for educational change in South Carolina. Educators in South Carolina look to The SCEA for assistance in every aspect of their professional life. From career planning as a student to retirement assessment as a career teacher, The SCEA offers assistance, guidance, and inspiration for educators.- Learn more: TheSCEA.org
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- Send your letters to: feedback@statehousereport.com
From donors and Obama to church fires, candidates and Lee Bright
Thumbs up
Donors. Not only has an anonymous group of out-of-state donors given $3 million for scholarships in honor of the Emanuel Nine church shooting victims, but other donors have given more than $1.8 million more in gifts to two funds set up by the city of Charleston to help victims and do good works. More.
USC. Hats off to the University of South Carolina for reportedly reaching its seven-year, $1 billion capital campaign fundraising goal. More.
Obama. Thank you to President Obama for delivering a powerful eulogy last week in Charleston for the late Sen. Clementa Pinckney, D-Jasper. It was, in a word, inspirational.
In the middle
Church fires. Burning any church is not an acceptable response to a community that is changing. It’s sad that a Greeleyville AME Church burned this week, but its cause, thankfully, wasn’t hate, but nature (lightning). But think about what you thought when you first heard of the burning — you probably thought it was an act of racism. Lots of work still needs to be done to heal.
Presidential candidates. It’s healthy for democracy that so many people are running for president. We can’t, however, keep up with how many there are. Every week brings another political moth or two attracted to the limelight. Get ready to be assaulted by them on TV. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, reportedly has bought $7 million of ads, some of which will run in South Carolina.
Thumbs down
Vandalism. We understand the concept of civil disobedience. But snatching the Confederate flag off a pole outside the Statehouse and vandalizing portraits and statues with paint are acts that will promote division, not unity. Working within the law may be slow — democracy isn’t always quick or pretty — but it will bring change that will last. (A new flag went up; graffiti can be removed.)
Bright. State Sen. Lee Bright, R-Spartanburg, seems to be poised to lead the charge to keep the Confederate flag on Statehouse grounds. Let’s hope voices of moderation will drown vestiges of the past. Let’s also hope his opportunistic ploy of trying to raise political money dies a quick death.
Wilson. Thumbs down to state Attorney General Alan Wilson for trying to block federal Clean Water regulations. More.
NUMBER$30.2 million
That’s the amount of money that Gov. Nikki Haley vetoed in the $7 billion state budget. Lawmakers return Monday to deal with the 87 line-item vetoes. Observers expect most of the vetoes to be overridden. More.
Anything is possible
“If we can find grace, anything is possible.”
— President Barack Obama at last Friday afternoon’s eulogy for state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, one of the victims of the Charleston church shooting. Full transcript.
S.C. ENCYCLOPEDIAColeman L. Blease
S.C. Encyclopedia | A state governor and U.S. senator, Coleman Livingston Blease was born near Newberry on Oct. 8, 1868, the son of Henry Horatio Blease and Mary Ann Livingston. From 1884 to 1886, Blease attended Newberry College, and he earned a bachelor of laws degree from Georgetown University in 1889. He was admitted to the South Carolina Bar that same year. In 1890, Blease married Lillie B. Summers, who died in 1914. In 1939, he married Caroline Floyd, but the couple separated a year later. Both marriages were childless.
Blease entered public service in 1890, when he was elected to represent Newberry in the S.C. House of Representatives. Reelected in 1892, he was elevated to the position of Speaker Pro Tempore of the sixtieth General Assembly (1892–1893). Defeated in reelection bids in 1894 and 1896, Blease returned to the House in 1899. He was ambitious for higher office and made unsuccessful runs for the office of lieutenant governor in 1900 and 1902, then won election to the S.C. Senate from Newberry in 1905. Two years later he served as President Pro Tempore of the Senate for the sixty-seventh General Assembly (1907–1908). Blease ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1906 and 1908 but won the office in 1910 and was subsequently reelected in 1912.
Blease’s two terms as governor were the high-water mark of perhaps the most polarizing figure in South Carolina political history. His appeal was primarily among a new class of South Carolinians that emerged early in the twentieth century: the white mill worker. Part of Blease’s attraction among mill workers was his flamboyant style and his unmatched stump-speaking ability. But he also identified with working-class whites, especially the mill workers, and capitalized on their desire to be treated as equals. Blease understood their fear that they were being marginalized by middle-class society. While critics saw him as nothing more than a demagogue and as lacking any concrete substance, “Coley” became the champion of mill workers who had little use for progressive “do-gooders” or government regulators who intruded in their workplaces and homes. Neither reformer nor innovator, Blease was an obstructionist who blocked legislation that threatened the ability of operatives “to manage their own affairs.” Confronting Blease’s overwhelming support from mill operatives was his equally solid opposition among middle- and upper-class South Carolinians, who denounced “Bleasism” as a threat to law and order. The controversy surrounding Blease brought supporters and opponents to polls in staggering numbers, with voter participation topping eighty percent in the 1912 gubernatorial campaign.
As governor, Blease emphasized individual freedom for whites and racism. He opposed government regulation, even if its purpose was to benefit the same mill workers to whom he appealed. He denounced an act to limit working hours for mill employees, believing it interfered with parents’ control over their children. He vetoed legislation to inspect factories for safety and health considerations, stating that a man ought to be able to work under any conditions he chose. He opposed compulsory education as an attempt to replace parents with “the paid agents of the State in the control of children,” and he vetoed four compulsory attendance bills while governor..
While promoting equality for white mill workers, Blease also appealed to racial bigotry and accused opponents of attempting to reduce white mill workers to the same level as African Americans. He labeled blacks as “baboons” and “apes” and urged that there be no spending of white men’s taxes on black schools. As governor, Blease promoted separation of the races on chain gangs and defended lynching, stating, “whenever the Constitution comes between me and the virtue of the white women of the South, I say to hell with the Constitution.” He promised that he would pardon any lyncher convicted by a jury. Blease’s relationship with the General Assembly was tumultuous, and his numerous vetoes were frequently overridden by the legislature.
Despite his volatile tenure, there were some accomplishments during his reign as governor. These included the establishment of a state tuberculosis sanitarium, the adoption of the medical college in Charleston as a public institution, the creation of a special tax on hydroelectric companies, the support for better provision for common schools, and the abolition of the penitentiary hosiery mill because of unhealthy conditions.
Blease resigned as governor five days before the end of his term so that he would not have to hand his office over to Richard I. Manning, who was elected on an anti-Blease platform of progressive reform. Blease failed in attempts to return to the governor’s chair in 1916 and 1922, and likewise failed in 1914 and 1918 to win election to the U.S. Senate. However, in 1924 he won election to the U.S. Senate with the slogan “Roll up yer sleeves and say what cha’ please; the man fer the office is Cole L. Blease.” During his one term Blease had no influence in national Democratic circles since he refused to be bound by party caucuses.
In 1930 he was defeated in his bid for reelection by James F. Byrnes. Although he still enjoyed a loyal following in South Carolina, Blease never again commanded enough votes to return to the governor’s mansion, losing attempts in 1934 and 1938. In 1941 he was elected a member of the State Unemployment Compensation Commission. He died on January 19, 1942, in Columbia and was buried in Newberry.
– Excerpted from the entry by William V. Moore. To read more about this or 2,000 other entries about South Carolina, check out The South Carolina Encyclopedia by USC Press. (Information used by permission.)
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