Op Ed by Jim Rex – Originally published in The State

On Sunday, this newspaper endorsed one of my opponents, counting his legislative experience as more valuable than my executive experience. I couldn’t disagree more.

The truth is, experience matters. I have managed more people, programs and dollars throughout my career than all the Republican and Democratic candidates for governor combined. The governor’s office isn’t about casting votes, introducing legislation or even forming personal relationships with members of South Carolina’s General Assembly. It’s an executive position that requires its occupant to run the state of South Carolina.

Too many times, we have elected people to South Carolina’s top office who have never run anything, and we see where that has gotten us. In addition, these leaders have been incapacitated, not by their inability to get along with the Legislature but by their inexperience and unwillingness to move throughout the state to build consensus among the people of South Carolina to propel our state forward.

I am not a career politician, and I’m not interested in being beholden to the Legislature. As governor, I would do exactly what I have done as state superintendent of education, and that is travel to South Carolina’s 46 counties to build consensus for change.

I have learned that you cannot change South Carolina from Columbia. The next governor must be an interactive governor who speaks directly to the people of South Carolina in order to put pressure on the Legislature to abandon the status quo and move our state in a new direction.

I will be that kind of governor. I am a former high school English teacher, football coach, university dean and college president, and I know how to connect the dots between education and the most pressing issue facing our state — jobs.

While our state has been adrift, mired in political turmoil as we have watched scandal after scandal unfold, the lives of real working families have become dramatically worse.

Wall Street may be looking up, but tell that to the nearly 100,000 S.C. workers who have lost their jobs this year. The number triples when you include those who entered the recession unemployed or have been forced into lower-paying jobs just to try to make ends meet.

For too long, we’ve allowed short-term thinking and special-interest politics to get in the way of economic progress. If we are going to succeed at creating stable, good-wage jobs in our state, we need to focus on the unique assets that make us strong and competitive.

It starts with our hard-working people and the natural resources and quality of life that can attract new employers and capital investment. Govs. Carroll Campbell and Dick Riley worked hard to attract new businesses to the state, bringing investments, jobs and training programs to develop a skilled labor force. Recently we’ve been in the news for public embarrassment, not ambassadorship. I will turn that around, restoring pride and dignity to our state, ensuring that business leaders across the country and around the world know that South Carolina is a sound investment with a beautiful environment, welcoming people, great quality of life and an educational system on the move.

My jobs plan makes the GED free to those who cannot afford it, so that we can quickly get as many of our citizens into the workforce as possible. It extends unemployment benefits to those getting retrained in high-demand fields. It builds up small business by reducing taxes and unnecessary red tape; and it insists that we hire South Carolinians — not illegal immigrants — and forces South Carolina’s employers to obey these laws.

As South Carolinians, it’s time for us to stop hiring the arsonists — the career politicians — to put out the fire. It’s time to say “no” to the special interests and “yes” to the families who are working hard and playing by the rules.

Let’s not have voters’ remorse yet again this year. South Carolina is ready to change, and I am ready to lead that change. I ask for your support in the June 8 Democratic primary.

BY JIM REX
Guest Columnist
Dr. Rex is the state superintendent of education.