SC Superintendent Candidate Moffly to Visit CERRA
For immediate release, December 3, 2009
SC Superintendent Candidate Elizabeth Moffly to Visit CERRA on Monday
ROCK HILL—South Carolina citizens will elect a new state superintendent of education in November 2010, and one person vying for the post wants to learn about the nation’s oldest and most established teacher recruitment center.
Elizabeth Moffly, 48, (R-Awendaw), who is running for the superintendent post for a second time, will visit the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement (CERRA) on Monday. She is a co-owner of Moffly Construction and other small businesses, including a horse farm and commercial fishing dock. She came in third in the 2006 Republican primary, with only 5 percent of the vote. But she said issues that she supported—replacing the PACT test and creating an office of choice at the state department of education—have been introduced by the current administration. She took part in a transition team for Jim Rex, who is vacating his post in hopes of becoming South Carolina’s next governor.
Moffly says on her website, www.elizabethmoffly.com, that her plan is to make learning fun and in the best interest of children. “Real choice and real change requires viable and substantive choice options. Economic development and graduation rates are directly linked to student achievement, parental involvement and professional development,” she said. “Parental involvement requires giving parents the fundamental right to direct the education that is in the best interest of their child, she says. Schools are service industries and need to accommodate individualized learning.”
She also has plans to replace the state diploma with alternative routes to high school completion and to revise the South Carolina Uniform Grading Scale to maximize lottery scholarship assistance.
Other candidates for state superintendent of are: Frank Holleman, 55, (D-Greenville), who is an attorney and the former deputy secretary of education under then-United States Secretary of Education Dick Riley; Brent Nelsen, 50, (R-Greenville), who is a professor at Furman University; and Kelly Payne, 39, (R-Irmo), who is a teacher at Dutch Fork High School; and Mick Zais, 62, (R-Newberry), who has been the president of Newberry College since 2000.
Payne will visit CERRA on December 14 to discuss future partnerships. A date has not yet been set for Zais’ visit. Holleman and Nelsen visited with the teacher recruitment organization last month.
CERRA is a non-partisan state-funded organization and does not endorse any specific candidate. The organization, however, is open to sharing its mission and vision with any candidate for elected office in South Carolina.
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About the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention, & Advancement:
CERRA, an independent state agency located on the campus of Winthrop University, is the oldest and most established teacher recruitment program in the country. The purpose of CERRA is to provide leadership in identifying, attracting, placing and retaining well-qualified individuals for the teaching profession in South Carolina. CERRA is a national model and its programs have been adopted at school, district and state levels in more than 30 states in the United States. More information about the Center and its programs is available at www.cerra.org. You can now follow CERRA on Facebook and Twitter.