DARLA MOORE
SPEECH TO THE ALPHA ETA STATE CONVENTION

MARCH 19, 2005

I am truly honored today - not only by your recognition of me as an honorary member of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society, but by the opportunity to be with such an outstanding group who is committed to promoting excellence in education. If you know anything about my background, you know I grew up in a family of educators. But, just saying Mom and Dad were educators does not do justice to their love and commitment to educating and improving the lives of so many young people - including mine. In fact, it was Papa Bear's (that is what I call my Dad) untiring effort as a teacher, coach, and principal in Lake City that led Richard and me to contribute to the Clemson School of Education in his honor. Even beyond my parents, a great deal of my life decisions have been greatly influenced by some very special teachers - some, I might add, not in the most positive of ways. I still remember Mrs. ________________ in my first "home economics" class telling me.... (Other stories of teachers having an affect on your life?)

So, you see, education and the need to be educated are at the very foundation of my life. It is something I do not take for granted, and I will always be indebted to my parents for insisting that I do my very best. As has been told to me so many times - no one can ever take a good education away from you regardless of your gender or heritage or status in life. Each one of you here today understands the truth of such a statement.

Let me say, however, that I am also delighted to be with you today because your mission is not only promoting excellence in education but also promoting the professional and personal growth of women educators. During the last century, we, and I am talking about us women, have made significant advances but many are far from enjoying gender equality. Throughout our nation, women earn less than men, are seriously underrepresented in political offices, and make up a disproportionate share of people in poverty. According to a study by the Institute for Women's Policy Research in 2002:

• South Carolina is the worst state in the country for the proportion of elected officials who are women.
• At 29 cents per dollar, South Carolina's wage gap between the earnings of men and women is larger than the national wage gap of 27 cents.
• Women in South Carolina are must less likely to be self-employed than women nationally.
• Overall, women's poverty rates are higher in South Carolina than nationally.

That is not a good track record. But, let me give you some additional data. According to the 2000 U.S. Census Bureau on educational attainment for the population in South Carolina 25 years and over by sex:

• We have more high school graduates
• We have more associate degrees
• We have more bachelors degrees
• We have more masters degrees, but
• We are trailing men in the number of professional school degrees and doctorate degrees.

So, the question becomes what do we do to improve our track record and take advantage of our higher educational attainment?

Let me be blunt - you knock the door down - you crack the ceiling open - you do not take "No" for an answer or, more to the point, as an excuse.

When I went to New York, there was no doubt in my mind I was as smart, if not smarter, than any of my male colleagues. Unfortunately, they did not agree. How could a little blond girl from the South be as smart as those Ivy League white boys and, by the way, they were in charge. So, rather than being assigned to mergers and acquisitions - the hot division at the time -- I was sent to the bankruptcy division, but it turned out to be a life lesson. I was being discriminated against simply because I was a female from the South. As I think about it today, I am reminded of the very wise words of Jewell Jackson McCabe, founder of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, who said on the subject of discrimination of another form, "You factor in racism as a reality and you keep moving." Rather than simply complaining about it, you do something about it. I worked extraordinarily hard to make a successful career for myself despite what some of those Northern white boys thought. In fact, along with hard work, I learned to use the fact that I was a cute little blond girl from the South to my advantage. So, the challenge today not only for us but for the next generation is not to accept less but prove we deserve more.

According to the 2000 census, we outnumber men in voting age population in South Carolina 1,569,958 to 1,432,413. We are simply not taking advantage of our strengths. When we are not treated fairly, we need to kick someone in the part of the anatomy that will be remembered. We have the votes; we have the educational attainment; all we need is the will.

As you see, it is not hard for me to become somewhat passionate about this subject, but before I go to preaching, I want to talk to you a few minutes about another passion of mine and why you are so important to it. As some of you may know, I am Chairman of the Board of the Palmetto Institute, an independent, non-partisan, non-profit research foundation. We have one mission - to increase the wealth of all South Carolinians. We are guided by two simple rules:

1. First, we use per capita income as our measurement of progress because to increase it, we must raise the wealth for all segments of our population and not just a few, and
2. Second, while we have an extraordinary Board with very strong opinions, we will not make a public pronouncement without sound, independent research.

While not going into detail, I can tell you our research has led us to the conclusion that South Carolina cannot be competitive in the knowledge-based, global economy we find ourselves in today. We must change the traditional approach to economic development from focusing on the recruitment of large foreign companies with offers of abundant low-cost labor - by the way, that means less educated -- low taxes and high financial incentives to a focus of building our own assets. To be more competitive, we must increase the productivity of our products and services by adding value to them. Think about it. How can we compete when the competition is paying 90 cents an hour to produce the same product? We cannot. We must find ways to make sure our product is different or unique or just better. We must be innovative in our production and marketing. To accomplish this, Professor Michael Porter of Harvard, the leading expert on competitiveness, has told us to build clusters of industries led not by the government but by the private sector collaborating with all parties to build these hubs of innovation throughout the state. It means the academic community must work hand-in-hand with the business community to find new ways to be smarter, more innovative, and more productive. But, make sure we all understand the bottom line to achieving this goal. We must improve the quality of our workforce skills - that means the quality of our educational system. In today's world even if a young person finishes high school but does not have the skills to obtain additional training either through college or technical training, then his or her chances of finding a quality position with the capacity to grow is severely limited.

Recently, I read a study which found if you do not finish high school, it takes an average of 11 years before you can obtain a job which will last at least 3 years. Even if you finish high school, it will still take you an average of 6 years before you can obtain a job which will last at least 3 years. However, if you graduate from college, it will take an average of only 1 ½ years to obtain a job where you will stay at least 3 years.

When I just spoke of having to build on our existing assets as a means of growing of economy rather than offering foreign companies cheap labor, I want you to understand, the best assets we have are ourselves. But, the only way we can become more competitive is to increase the educational level of our citizens. We have to become smarter to compete. It is that simple.

The Palmetto Institute is working on a variety of projects including:

• working with the research universities to increase the commercialization of research into new jobs and companies,
• working with Michael Porter to implement long-term economic strategies in South Carolina,
• working with African Americans in poor rural areas, and
• working on a comprehensive study of our tax structure to more equitably serve our economy,

-- all in an effort to increase the wealth of our citizens. But, the foundation of all these efforts begins and ends with increasing the level of education in South Carolina. From the lowest levels of attainment to the highest, we must do better. That is why I am so proud to be with you today. You exemplify the dedication and commitment to education which is absolutely critical to our success. But, even with your extraordinary dedication and effort, today I must ask more of you in helping to improve the quality of life in our state.

First, we must demand more from our students, from our administrators, from political leaders, from the business leaders, and, most important, from our own communities. We have this terrible inferior complex in this state which we must overcome. Why we think we have to accept less is beyond me. So, let us all demand more.

Second, we cannot do it ourselves. Education in this state cannot be improved by just relying on the education community to "fix the problems." We must collaborate with the business community, the faith community, the higher education and technical education systems as well as our very own communities in finding solutions. When I first came back to South Carolina, I was amazed how everything was so compartmentalized. If you had a problem with K through 12, it was the Department of Education's problem. If you had an economic development problem, it was the Department of Commerce's problem. If you had a higher education problem, you had to talk to the Commission on Higher Education. Not only was everything compartmentalized, we were relying only on government entities to solve our problems. No more, it is our responsibility, all of us, to stop looking to government as the savior for every problem. We must seek partnerships from every segment of our state to work together to build a better place to live.

Third, we must look to sound, independent research to give us guidance and best practices to solve some of our problems. When you hear someone advocating new approaches and only using anecdotal examples to support their conclusions, a red flag should go up immediately. Listen, you now have the statistics to tell you which classes and students are not performing well and which kids are dropping out of school. The question becomes, how can we get you the best practices and the support to implement the changes necessary to address these problems? And, that is not simply an education problem; it is everyone's problem. That is why it is so important we work together to solve these issues. If we do not, someone will be out there espousing changes which make no sense.

In a recent report entitled "New Traditions: Options for Rural High School Excellence" published by the Southern Governors' Association, a team from the Southern Governors' Association working with the Rural School and Community Trust attempted to learn lessons from successful schools with high minority and high poverty populations. The schools visited included Shaw High School in Mississippi, where almost all students qualified for free or reduced-price meals, and Swain County High School in Brunson City, North Carolina. The remarkable thing about the findings from studying these schools was the similarities in their actions. They had excellent leaders in their principals. They all had up-to-date data about their students, and they used it. It is amazing we are living in an information era and we do not use information as effectively as we could. Data such as how many young people had dropped out of school, how many students were taking higher-level courses, what happened to its graduates and its dropouts, and what were the school's strengths and weaknesses in academic achievements. They had flexibility in financing. In both Swain and Shaw, a collaborative partnership marked the relationship between the district superintendents and the high school principals. Funds could be directed toward the educational priorities without the usual red-tape most schools have to overcome. But, the most important similarity was that each school benefited from some type of school improvement framework. The amazing thing was neither school had the same plan. Yet, they both found the framework extremely useful as a roadmap to follow. In addition, they were able to use the framework to connect their schools to a larger network of technical assistance and educational research.

I mention the actions by these successful schools, notwithstanding their limitations, because you know they do not have the resources some of the more prosperous, suburban schools have, and you know they have to deal with a much higher level of social problems because of the poverty in their communities. Yet, they did not wait for issues to be resolved before they took steps to improve the quality of education for their students.

Last, we must be persistent. We are not going to solve our problems overnight. It is a marathon. We are making progress but we have to fight the battles every day. I know I am singing to the choir, but I want you to know today, it is a struggle you do not have to take on by yourselves. I promise you the Palmetto Institute will be with you every step of the battle. We believe South Carolina can be prosperous. We believe we can build world class opportunities for our citizens, particularly our younger generation. And, for me and my effort in South Carolina, this is what it is all about. I want our young people to have the type of education and the type of economic opportunities where they want to stay in South Carolina, and we will have the jobs and quality of life where they can.

Again, thank you for the honor you have bestowed on me today.

Thank you.