Candidate Superintendent of Education
By Stan Welch
In a recent interview Meka Childs, deputy Superintendent of Education under Mick Zais, made her case for why she is most qualified to fill the position General Zais chose to relinquish this year.
Like virtually all of the other candidates for the post (there are a total of thirteen as the primaries approach) she is prepared to address the issues and controversy surrounding the federal Common Core curriculum. Unlike some, however, she sees a number of other and equally important matters at hand.
A Republican and self described lifelong conservative, Childs sees the explosion of manufacturing and high tech jobs in South Carolina as a challenge to education. “We find our state on the verge of a manufacturing renaissance, and we have too many people with skills that don’t fit the needs. We need to change the old culture that equated dumb or badly behaved students with vocational training. “
“Manufacturing, tourism, health care – these are areas where good paying jobs can be had without a four year degree. We need to prepare our kids not just for jobs, however, but for the demands and challenges of citizenship as well. We need to teach them to be civically engaged and personally responsible.
Childs has experience in the classroom, and has served on a number of state commissions and boards dealing with education. She is a military wife and a mother of one daughter. She holds two degrees from Duke University.
She opposes federal intrusion into education and will protect the powers enumerated to the states by the Bill of Rights. She is in favor of parental choice as to the schools their children attend, and will bring accountability to the classroom.
