“Give a man a fish,” goes the old adage, “and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” And if anyone, anywhere has ever come up with a better argument for a world class public education system, I haven’t heard it.

Because here’s the unvarnished truth: Education is the silver bullet. It is the single greatest jobs program, competitiveness program, anti-poverty program, and anti-crime program ever invented. It is the pathway to opportunity and the road to the middle class and beyond. It is, in short, the foundation of our current and future prosperity.

Unfortunately, here in South Carolina, the education debate is currently being held hostage by the tired old politics of left and right. Too many politicians on both sides of the aisle are making grand ideological pronouncements that have little or nothing to do with the classroom reality of teaching a child to read and write or add and subtract or even, for that matter, to fish.

So, rather than getting mired in yet another political argument about funding formulas or testing regimes or states rights, here are four practical things we could be doing right now to improve public education in our state at relatively little or no cost.

Extend child support payments as long as children are in school. Today, a parent paying child support can typically stop making payments when the child turns 18. Unfortunately, this is precisely when the financial burden escalates if the child wants to go on to college or technical school. Extending these payments another two to four years, while the young man or woman is enrolled in a degree seeking program, would open up a whole new world of opportunities for students across South Carolina – and it would cost practically nothing to implement, as the child support collection system is already in place.

Expand online opportunities for students, teachers, and parents. Online learning is a no-brainer, and fortunately, we in South Carolina are doing better in this area than most. However, given the remarkable effectiveness of these limited, low cost initiatives, we could and should be doing more. In addition, most schools in South Carolina have a computerized system for centrally tracking students’ records – attendance, test scores, teachers’ comments, etc. Parents should be given real time, online access to these records to help them better understand what is happening with their child in school.

Empower students with digital learning tools. These days, mastering the tools of the digital age is as vital as reading, writing, and arithmetic. In 2008, I had the opportunity to help create the One Laptop Per Child / South Carolina project, with the bold goal of making our state the first to provide every child with a digital learning tool, such as a laptop, iPad, or Kindle. We raised over $1million from private sources, and there are now almost 3,000 of these devices in 15 pilot projects across South Carolina. And the results have been both amazing and cost effective – so cost effective, in fact, that we can now provide a digital device for every student for less than 2% of our current per pupil spending. It’s time for the Governor and the legislature to step up and finish that job.

Revoke the driver’s license of students that drop out of school before they graduate or reach 19 years of age. Yes, this is controversial. But driving is a privilege, not a right, and demanding that minors show proof of school attendance in exchange for this privilege is not unreasonable. A bill to establish this simple, sensible standard is currently before the state legislature, and they should pass it without further delay.

One of the nation’s most distinguished public servants, former Mississippi Governor William Winter, once famously noted “the road to prosperity runs by the schoolhouse door.” If our state is ever going to walk that road, South Carolina’s politicians must set aside their simplistic arguments over more or less money. More isn’t better, less isn’t better…better is better.

These four ideas will not solve all our education problems, but it’s a start. They could easily be implemented in January of next year when the Legislature returns and they will make South Carolina’s education system better.

Phil Noble is a businessman from Charleston and he currently serves as President of the South Carolina New Democrats, an independent reform group started by former Gov. Richard Riley.

Phil Noble

SC New Democrats

East Bay Street

Charleston

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