Rex uses education expertise to his advantage

Jim Rex's blue-collar parents never went to college so he didn't either.

After graduating from high school, the 17-year-old left his small, rural hometown on the shores of Lake Erie and headed to the big city of Toledo, where he locked down an assembly line job.

Working second and the occasional third shift, Rex pieced together parts of auto windows and worried this was all life had to offer.

The odds were stacked against Rex, but he later earned a doctorate, became a S.C. college dean and, eventually, the state superintendent of education, overseeing the state's 1,100 public schools.

Today, the odds seem similarly stacked against Rex in his quest to become the next governor of South Carolina.

Rex is a political outsider, not embraced by traditional Democrats. He didn't even enter politics until 2006, when he was 63.

He holds a statewide office but recent polling suggests many likely Democratic voters don't know him.

Most telling: His chief rival, Democrat state Sen. Vincent Sheheen of Kershaw County, boasts 26 times the amount of cash on hand - Sheheen's $749,000 vs. Rex's $29,000, according to the most recent financial filings.

Sheheen is set to run circles around Rex in paying for slick mailers to voters and expensive TV commercials.

Rex, a Fairfield County Democrat, has a comeback for each argument against his chances in the June primary and insists he's uniquely qualified to handle the job.

And he's proud of his outsider status. "It's the only way I would do it," said Rex, 67. "It's the only way I could do it."

DO YOU KNOW REX?

Rex held focus groups in 2009 to help decide whether to jump into the gubernatorial race.

Participants were shown photos of the Republicans and Democrats considering running for governor and asked who they recognized.

The majority only fingered Rex and Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, a Greenville Republican.

That voter recognition helped convince Rex he could not only win but win without raising loads of cash.

"It showed we needed to raise hundreds of thousands vs. millions," Rex said.

But a Rasmussen poll released last week paints a different picture.

Likely Democratic voters may not know Rex well at all.

According to the poll, Rex is tied with rival Sheheen, each supported by 16 percent of likely Democratic primary voters.

The third and final Democrat in the race, state Sen. Robert Ford of Charleston County, garnered 12 percent support.

Phil Noble, president of the S.C. New Democrats, thinks the polling understates Democrats familiarity with Rex but Sheheen still holds the upper hand.

"I would suspect that Jim Rex has significantly more name ID than Vincent Sheheen even if the poll doesn't show that," Noble said.

That's where Sheheen's huge fund-raising lead will come in, Noble added.

"Two weeks of unanswered television (by Sheheen) and Sheheen drastically changes the numbers."

THE STATE OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Rex faces other challenges as well, including his current job - running the state's school system.

Many South Carolinians think public schools are in sad shape.

That stereotype, whether true or false, could hurt Rex who, for the past three years, has held the state's top education post, superintendent of education.

Rex and his supporters agree public schools have a way to go. But, they add, the state's public schools have made incremental improvement during Rex's tenure including:

- The largest-in-the-nation gain in SAT scores over a 10-year period, according to the College Board, which administers the test.

- Best-in-the-nation improvement in on-time high school graduation rates, according to Education Week, a national education magazine.

- The federal Department of Education's selection of South Carolina as one of 15 states to compete for a chunk of $4.35 billion in new federal money for innovative education initiatives.

- $27.5 million in federal loans and grants for a new J.V. Martin Jr. High School in Dillon. The deteriorating school, portions of which are more than 100 years old, has become the face of South Carolina's underfunded and unfit school buildings.

"It just shows me that we made real progress," Rex said. "It happened even though we had a governor (Republican Mark Sanford) who was hostile or indifferent to public education, even though we had a Legislature that was gridlocked over moving forward with the reforms we've been pushing for three years and an economy that was sluggish."

One of Rex's biggest pushes has been for choice within public schools, a move that helped stave off calls for tax credits or vouchers for private schools.

Traci Young Cooper, South Carolina's 2002 Teacher of the Year, lauds Rex's choice program, which encourages public schools to create innovative school-within-schools, giving students alternative ways to learn.

As a result, South Carolina now offers 160 single-gender programs in its public schools, more than any other state, and is a national leader in the number of Montessori classes.

South Carolina also has seen a rapid increase in the number of magnet and charter schools during Rex's tenure.

"Parents wanted choice, new innovative approaches to teaching and learning," Cooper said. "Jim didn't stick his head into the sand on that. When he got in office, he created more choices for parents but within the public schools."

Nella Barkley, a Charleston business owner and Rex backer, points to her own backyard as proof.

"Where I live in Charleston County has some of the worst schools in the state but also one of the best magnet schools in the nation," she said. "There are pockets of success across the state."

BUSINESS KNOW-HOW?

Critics say Rex, a career educator who has spent the overwhelming majority of his life working in higher education and public education, is ill-suited to be governor.

A steep recession that has catapulted the state's unemployment rate to nearly 13 percent requires a governor with job creation know-how and experience in attracting industry, they say.

"People are worried about their future because of the jobless rate. They do not see anybody in government doing anything about that," said Dwight Drake, a Columbia Democrat who dropped out of the gubernatorial race earlier this month. "The most important issue to voters is jobs, and none of the candidates running have ever done anything to create a single job other than the one for themselves."

Still, Drake is complimentary of Rex's maturity and knowledge about education, which Drake thinks is the state's most important issue long term.

"The biggest negative that Jim and any of them have - and they all have it - is they're incumbent office holders," Drake said. "So it's an equal negative and doesn't hurt Jim any more than the others."

Scott Huffmon, political scientist and pollster at Winthrop University, said Rex's experience is a double-edged sword.

"Research has shown that when companies are looking to relocate, the No. 1 thing they're looking for is not tax incentives but a quality, ready-to-work work force," Huffmon said. "That means education must be a top priority for a state that wants to grow its economy. A candidate who knows about education would have an advantage."

The flip side: "Voters may feel Rex hasn't done a good job (as superintendent of education). That would be a criticism that would hurt him in his race."

This story was originally published March 21, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Rex uses education expertise to his advantage."