Editorials from across SC: transgender bathroom bill, police training, teacher recruitment

Bathroom bill

There are many important questions that need to be asked about state Sen. Lee Bright’s proposed transgender bathroom bill that would prevent people from using public bathrooms that do not correspond with their biological sex. But the first and most important is simply this: why?

So far, it’s a question that Bright has been unable to adequately answer. Perhaps that is because no adequate answer exists.…

South Carolina’s lawmakers have a lot of real, weighty issues to deal with. They don’t need to be wasting their time with ill-conceived proposals that address none of the real concerns facing this state’s hardworking residents.

South Carolina lawmakers should not be in the practice of passing bad bills to show solidarity with another state that made a bad decision. Our lawmakers are charged with making important decisions that can have profound effects on our way of life. One would hope they would approach the job thoughtfully.

Even if Bright has strong feelings about transgender issues (opinions to which he is entitled), as legislators he and his colleagues are duty-bound to focus on issues that truly will have an impact on our daily lives. With so many important issues to address, it’s difficult to fathom why any lawmaker thought this was a good idea.

Police training

In South Carolina, law enforcement officers often learn the hazards of shooting at moving cars the hard way — out on the street.

And when that happens, they often feel the sting of public criticism, the dismay of a “bad shoot,” and sometimes even the weight of the law finding that they shot inappropriately.

So State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel’s call for more training of officers facing this situation is a good one for the officers and the public. …

Of course it seems reckless to shoot at a car when there are pedestrians nearby, for example. But what about when the driver races away from police who have an urgent reason to stop him? A high-speed chase can be reckless, too.

The answers aren’t always clear. That’s why experts at the police academy should be teaching recruits what to do.

Teacher incentives

It’s an approach that parallels the military. Sign up to serve and get the education free. Or virtually free. …

If the current loan-forgiveness program is not attracting new teachers, how will the new proposal have a positive impact on the rural schools that are constantly struggling with putting teachers in classrooms? The turnover rate for teachers in these more destitute rural districts is high – anywhere between 11 and 34 percent, as calculated last year. These districts are in worse shape because they are so remote and do not offer many of the amenities and quality-of-life features of their more populated counterparts throughout the state. The lure of as much as $30,000 being erased from a teacher’s student debt might not be enough to offset eight years spent in what might, to the young teacher, feel like a ghost town. Eight years is a long time to a new graduate.

But the state has to try something if it is going to grow a crop of teachers to serve the students attending its rural public schools. What other choice is there? These are public school classrooms, not the military. We do not use conscription — the draft — to force classroom service. Of course, even if enough teachers step forward and sign up for an eight-year tour of duty in rural districts, a big question remains: where will the state get the money to fund the program when it cannot adequately fund so much else, to include fixing the infrastructure?

This story was originally published April 18, 2016 at 2:45 PM with the headline "Editorials from across SC: transgender bathroom bill, police training, teacher recruitment."