Governor hopefuls debate education funds

By Alison Angel

South Carolina gubernatorial candidates debate higher-education funds and diversity on Tuesday at Winthrop. Photo by Kathleen BrownFunding was the hot topic among South Carolina gubernatorial candidates on campus for a debate on Tuesday.

In front of a crowd of 500 ticket holders, Republican and Democratic candidates took questions from a media panel consisting of three S.C. reporters.

Discussion focused not only on the issue of state budget cuts and how they affect higher education, but also on whether candidates deemed certain solutions as being effective.

Also, candidates of both parties debated on whether bringing out-of-state students to S.C. universities is in the state’s interest.

“This is a problem facing all of our colleges, and we need to make sure that we’re educating our students first,” Republican Rep. Nikki Haley said.

Republican Lt. Governor Andre Bauer disagrees.

He said he was in favor of pursuing out-of-state students for a reason other than simply generating revenue.

“One thing it does is bring diversity,” Bauer said. “We want diversity. We want people from all walks of life, from all over the world coming to our institutions for higher learning here in South Carolina. So it is a way for us to market our great state, and it is also a way to offset costs. So I fully support it.”

Technical schools
Due to tremendous growth at two-year schools, all candidates overwhelmingly agreed that technical colleges were an important asset to the state and should receive greater attention. Democratic Superintendent of Education Jim Rex said he saw rising tuition at four-year colleges as a big reason for the growth of technical colleges.

“A lot of kids are going through two years and getting a technical degree and then transferring to a four-year institution,” Rex said. “We’ve driven tuition up so high in this state that we’re actually misusing it for some of our students at the technical-college system.”

Innovista
Candidates also commented on how to get kids excited about higher education. Innovista and other new programs have been implemented in recent years in the state. Innovista is a part of the University of South Carolina’s campus. The investment integrates public and private sector research in areas such as hydrogen fuel cells, international business and public health.

More than $140 million have been put into the Innovista campus, and some critics have called it a bust.

While candidate response on the subject varied, most candidates agreed that while there may have been problems with the execution, the concept was a good one.

At the end of the debate, all candidates pressed the importance of higher education in South Carolina.English Instructor Bryan Ghent.