Ms. Lindsay Head’s first-grade class at Nursery Road Elementary

I am very fortunate to represent one of the best school districts in South Carolina: Lexington/Richland School District Five ! Every chance I get, I want to be involved in our classrooms and hear from our teachers, students, and parents.

Today I had an opportunity to visit with and read to Ms. Lindsay Head’s first-grade class at Nursery Road Elementary . While reading “Snow Day” to the students, I was very impressed when one young lady told me the girl in our story had “procrastinated” by not doing her homework and instead playing in the snow! Procrastinated? A first-grader? Yep! We have some very bright young children in our area and every time I’m in the classroom I always walk away impressed.

As the son of an educator who taught for 30 years, I know first-hand how hard our teachers work to help prepare our leaders of tomorrow. While I was recently punished and stripped of my seat on the House Education and Public Works Committee, it does not mean I won’t be involved working towards improving education for all the students of our state.

Once again this year, I’m sure legislation on “choice” (private and/or public) will come to the House floor for debate. I’d love to hear your thoughts as I plan to continue to push for us to do something – anything – to try to improve education in our state and be sure all students have a shot at fulfilling their potential.

Also, if you’re the parent of a high school senior in our area, be sure your son/daughter contacts his/her school’s guidance counselor about the 2009 Ballentine Scholarships! Packets have been mailed and hopefully posters displayed. More information (2008, earlier) can be found here .

Tonight I want to say a special THANKS to every teacher in our district who work hard each and every day to make a difference in our children’s lives!

Again this week, most of the action in the House was at the subcommittee and committee levels.

Clearing both those early hurdles were the Abortion Ultrasound-Waiting Period Bill and the Payday Lending Bill. (Those are simplified monikers for the bills; you can read the entire text of each bill by clicking on the respective bill numbers here: H3245 and H3301 ). Both bills made it to the House Calendar this Thursday but we won’t have floor debate until next week – at the earliest.

This week we had a first – a required roll-call vote on Senate Amendments. This was a direct result of efforts to provide greater transparency in state government. Granted, we’re not where we need to be yet but hopefully we can pass the bill later this session and make it a law for our state to join several others with mandatory on-the-record voting on all legislation.

Other news of note inside the House Chamber was that our own Rep. James Smith will not enter the race for Governor (at least not for 2010). That news appears to have led to the announcement today that Rep. Smith’s close friend has now made his intentions official .

While I’m mentioning friends on the other side of the aisle, I’d like to point out that both Representatives Anne Petterson-Hutto and Boyd Brown have now joined Twitter. They will add to the number of Democrats who appear on SCTWEETS.COM to help balance out the posts from the floor. Already on Twitter were fellow House Democrats James Smith and Anton Gunn .

In more Democrat news, the House Democratic Caucus announced Tyler Jones as their new Executive Director.

The House Republican caucus will soon unveil a completely new website with streaming video, social networking (Facebook/Twitter), and other state-of-the-art features. As the times seem to have changed greatly, it’s good to see both parties and some elected officials embracing technology. (I didn’t want to leave out a House Republican who has also joined Twitter this week too, Representative Thad Viers .)

Outside the chamber, Republicans and Democrats alike welcomed former Canadian Ambassador (and former SC House Speaker) David Wilkins back to the state at a reception at the Nelson, Mullins, Riley and Scarborough law offices .

Next week, we’ll also elect fill several judicial positions throughout our state. As in most years, many races saw candidates drop and leave just one person left to be voted upon by the General Assembly. As I type, there are only three contested races.

Lastly, I’d again like to thank the following constituents for taking their time to come speak with me at the State House concerning legislation important to them: Traci Richard, Ben Thompson, and LaWandra Kelly.

In recent weeks, you’ve read about several elected officials visiting Dutch Fork High School teacher Kelly Payne’s civics class. Most recently, Representative Nikki Haley , myself , House Speaker Bobby Harrell , Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom and also Attorney General Henry McMaster , have fielded questions and talked about the issues and challenges facing our state.

As the kids say on the basketball courts, who’s got next?

Ashley Landess, President of the South Carolina Policy Council, will be visiting with the students on Wednesday, February 11th.

In a state where females are scarce in elected office and equally scarce in the “political power circles”, Ashley ranks near the top of the “Who’s Who” in our state.

Since 1986 the South Carolina Policy Council Education Foundation has brought together civic, community and business leaders from all over our state to discuss innovative policy ideas that advance the principles of limited government and free enterprise. The Policy Council’s headquarters has served as the meeting place for groups from classroom teachers to our state’s top CEO’s, who share the goal of encouraging a positive environment in which South Carolina families can thrive, work and raise children.

No other think tank in South Carolina can match the Policy Council’s success in assembling the top national and state experts on taxes, education, environmental policy, health care and numerous other issues. That ability to bring new ideas to the forefront, lead the policy debate and create a broad base of support for sensible reform is what makes our organization the leader in turning good ideas into good state policy.

I recently got to know Ashley this summer when we spent time, along with Representative Haley, Governor Sanford and others, educating the state of the importance of accountability in state government. We have had success in recent passage of a House Rule for more roll-call voting but we’ll continue to push for a law to be passed. There are several other reforms our state needs, many have been talked about for years in state government but it takes work to get these reforms passed by our legislature.

In upcoming weeks look for Steve Benjamin (February 24th), Representative Chip Huggins (February 27th)and also State Superintendent of Education, Dr. Jim Rex (scheduled for February 25th), to pay a visit to this “must stop” in political circles.

These students are not only very bright and aware of the issues; but also, they understand the significance and importance of having state officials visit their school and classroom. The students know they are very fortunate to have a teacher like Mrs. Payne and also have state officials take time from their busy schedules to help educate (and prepare) tomorrow’s leaders about public service in our state.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, February 2, 2009
Contact: Talbert Black, Jr.
803-767-1152 (m)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ballentine to speak at “Meet your Representative” event

Irmo, SC – An open invitation has been extended to the residents of Lexington and Richland Counties and other interested persons to meet Representative Nathan Ballentine on Tuesday, February 24 at 7:00 p.m. at the Northwest YMCA. There is no charge to attend.

Representative Ballentine will be the guest of honor at this second in a series of “Meet your Representative” events. He has been invited to speak about his background, political philosophy and goals for the current legislative session. After his comments, he will take questions from the audience. All in attendance will receive information on how to contact their representatives in the State House.

“Nathan Ballentine is at the front of the charge to make the government of South Carolina accountable to the people of this state,” said Talbert Black, Jr., the SC 2nd Congressional District Coordinator for Campaign for Liberty , and sponsor of the event. Mr. Black added, “It is refreshing to see a representative who truly thinks of himself as a servant of the community.” Because Nathan Ballentine wants to devote his position as our State Representative to genuine public service, he has committed to contribute his legislative salary to worthy causes in our community, such as scholarships, youth groups, and charitable causes. “Public service should not be about personal gain,” Nathan believes.

The Northwest YMCA is located at 1501 Kennerly Road in Irmo, SC. The meeting will be held in the multi-purpose room. Call the YMCA at 407-8007 for directions. For more information, contact Talbert Black, Jr., at 767-1152 or talbertjr1@windstream.net.

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