“We got on the bus, Gus
Time to make a new plan, Stan”

By Lee Turner,
President, Democratic Women of Greenville County

And the PLAN is to “Invest THEIR 50”, $50 dollars that is.

ICYMI… Our governor has decided to ‘invest’ the $61 million Education Lottery windfall SC recently received by writing $50 checks to a million households in SC. I’m sorry to tell the governor, but that is no investment. Not where I went to school anyway. A $50 check per household is not even a good sugar high…an absolute ‘blipless’ event on the economic screen of SC.

And besides, shouldn’t that money go to education? Of course it should.

I’m not gonna waste my space here talking about what a bonehead idea I think our elected officials have concocted other than to say it burns me up that we would miss the opportunity to actually INVEST $61 million dollars. In our children. In the future. No, I’d rather get busy trying to FIX IT! With your help of course. Since “I alone” can fix nothing.

Ok, here’s the plan.

1. Assemble of group of friends and neighbors.
2. Pick a school of your choosing, hopefully one in an under served neighborhood.
3. Discuss needs with some teachers from that school.
4. Ask the principal if some from your group can attend Christmas party.
5. Make a presentation at the Christmas party of the $50 checks from your group designated for specific needs of that school.

I don’t know how much of the $50 million will end up in Greenville County, but based upon population we could expect $5 million worth of $50 checks to descend upon our county. Even more incentive to “Invest THEIR 50”.

And now, here comes the Silver Lining! There’s always one there, you know.

The “Invest THEIR 50” initiative is the perfect entrée with which to get to know your neighborhood. The perfect non-threatening way folks can get involved for the first time. The perfect task-oriented precinct organizing tool. Many times, that’s what folks want, a firm task at hand vs. a theory. I’ve knocked on hundreds of doors all over Greenville & Spartanburg Counties. No matter the political persuasion, I’ve never met anyone who didn’t want more than ‘minimally adequate’ education for their children & grandchildren. Well, except for Betsy DeVos. And she doesn’t live here anyway. I’m not sure where she lives.

One option: the website donorschoose.org allows donors to pick what they want to fund in a local school or even a specific teacher’s classroom.

If you’re on social media, you can post about how you gave and use the hashtag #InvestTheir50 to inspire even more people to get involved.

Ok gang. Let’s get busy. Let’s invest $50 million in the children, the future of SC. Invest THEIR 50. We can do it, yes we can.