S.C. missed

In its $300 million request in the first round of “Race to the Top” federal education grants, S.C. missed out. Tennessee gained $500 million and Delaware, $100 million. Winning states were selected partly based on their successful charter schools and their teacher evaluations. The money is set aside as a federal $4.35 bil. pot of stimulus funds. This first round where S.C. missed out was good for a total of $2 bil., and an additional $2.35 billion will be awarded in a later round.

Maybe because...

The S.C. Chamber of Commerce released its annual report on S.C. education, “Break Away South Carolina.” Education and work force preparedness was called an area of concern. Among the 50 states, S.C. is ranked 39 in education and work force preparedness. However, S.C. scored in the top 10 in postsecondary education. And S.C. was ranked sixth in the country in the number of top–ranked undergraduate colleges, as a share of all educational institutions.

Still, S.C. has taken in more than $2 billion

In federal stimulus money, S. C, so far has received $2.1 billion as its part of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Charleston! Charleston!

The Charleston Symphony Orchestra announced on Sunday, March 28, it was immediately suspending operations for the rest of its season. The orchestra can’t make payroll through April. Ticket sales are doing all right, as are grants, but fundraising is too far off. Last year, the orchestra’s top 10 donors gave $680,000; this year, $253,000. The Charleston Symphony Orchestra has an annual operating budget of $2.4 million. Wages and benefits make up 75 percent of the orchestra’s costs. Columbia’s S.C. Philharmonic is maintaining its Koger Center schedule through the end of its season on a $1 million budget.

Personnel

The 20th annual Human Resources Conference put on by the S.C. Chamber of Commerce will be held May 16–18 at Wild Dunes. Expect the latest on policy issues and trends with updates on health care reform. For more information, reach Tish Anderson (tish.anderson@scchamber.net?subject=Human%Res ources%20Conference), or call her at 255.2627.

Attention, S.C. architects

The General Services Administration is acquiring a site to locate a new federal courthouse in downtown Greenville at the intersection of East North, North Irvine, East Coffee, and North Spring streets. The 204,000 sq. ft. facility will provide space for the U.S. District Court, U.S. Magistrate Court, and other federal agencies. Design work is expected to begin next fall, 2010.

Bad decisions

Edward T. Williams, owner of Columbia Screen and Awning Co. in Lexington County, decided to continue to operate his business without a license. He lost his business license last October because of a failure to file and pay state sales taxes. He was recently arrested by S.C. Department of Revenue investigators, and as of Monday, March 29, he was held at the Lexington County Detention Center pending a bond hearing.

Unemployed

For February, the S.C. unemployment rate held at 12.5 percent. Lexington County had the state’s lowest unemployment rate at 9.2 percent. Next door in Richland County the February rate was 10.4 percent. The state’s highest unemployment rate was in Marion County at 22.7 percent. The national unemployment rate was 9.7 percent, the same as in January.

CARTA update

Charleston’s bus system, Charleston Area Regional Transit Authority (CARTA), set a ridership record in February with more than 315,000 riders, which annualized is about 3.8 million. Columbia’s CMRTA ridership for last year averaged about 240,000 per month, or 2.9 million for the year. Charleston and Columbia together come to 6.7 million riders for the year, while in 1982, before SCANA’s policy to run off riders was in full force, both bus systems combined for 10.7 million annual riders.

Colonial Life #1

Columbia–based Colonial Life was named the nation’s favorite voluntary benefits company in a January survey among the members of National Association of Health Underwriters.