Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) — Ben Bernankes public school
education in Dillon, South Carolina, was his steppingstone to
Harvard University. Today, the schools he attended are being
cited by Barack Obama as symbols of how America has neglected
its poor.
The presidential hopeful visited Bernankes old high
school last night in Dillon, one of the towns in what a 2006
documentary called the states “corridor of shame. Dillon
has been plagued by failing schools, factory shutdowns and home
foreclosures in the decades since the family of Bernanke, now
Federal Reserve chairman, owned a pharmacy on Main Street.
Obama often cites Dillons dilapidated J.V. Martin Junior
High School, which Bernanke also attended, when he talks about
the need to address rural poverty. Hes delivered that message
across the state as he, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards vie
for the support of rural residents, who make up about 40
percent of state residents, in Saturdays Democratic primary.
“You have schools built in the 1800s, kids going to
school in trailers next to railroad tracks, Obama, 46, told
hundreds of people gathered in the Dillon High gym last night.
Why, he asked the crowd, is the U.S. “building new prisons and
putting our kids in old schools?
The schools condition is among the core problems that
will guide voters in mostly Democratic Dillon County, an area
of about 30,000 people in northeastern South Carolina thats
almost half African-American, said Dillon High School Principal
Julie Von Frank. “Pocketbook issues is what everyone here is
talking about — jobs, education, health care, she said.
First Graduating Class
Bernanke, now 54, was part of Dillon Highs first
graduating class in 1971, when the newly built school was
considered state of the art. It was the first year the school
was integrated, and his class was half black, Superintendent
Ray Rogers said. Now, the school, which is 75 percent black, is
showing its age. And with the unemployment rate at 10 percent
and the countys tax base depressed, the district has been
unable to build a new school.
Bernanke wouldnt comment for this story, Fed spokeswoman
Michelle Smith said.
1896 Classroom
J.V. Martin, where he went to middle school, has an
1896 classroom building, a 1917 auditorium that was condemned
for safety reasons last year, and a 1926 gym without air
conditioning or heat.
Almost every morning at assembly, the public address
system blows out the antiquated electric circuits, said
Principal Amanda Burnette, who was sent here by the state
department of education to turn around the schools
“unsatisfactory rating.
“This is a land of haves and have-nots, Burnette said.
“Theyre building a $10 million football stadium at a high
school in Cherokee County 250 miles from here, while were
worried about patching up roofs and replacing carpets.
Eighty-five percent of the children enrolled at Martin
fall below the federal poverty line. The countys poverty rate
of 24 percent is twice the national average, according to
Census figures.
Clinton, 60, a New York senator, has focused much of her
campaign on economic issues. Former North Carolina Senator
Edwards, 54, has made alleviating poverty a central theme of
his campaign and proposes laws to protect family farmers and a
ban on loan discrimination to rural areas. All three Democratic
candidates have spoken about increasing teachers salaries and
providing affordable health care.
`Crumbling School
Its Obama who has zeroed in on Dillons poverty in
speeches across the country. He was so struck by the
dilapidated conditions when he visited Martin Junior High last
August that his “jaw was slack, Burnette said. Ever since,
he has referred in his stump speeches to a girl “who goes to a
crumbling school in Dillon.
Seventy percent of the children who attend Martin Junior
High are black, with many whites in the county sending their
children to a private Christian school.
Peeling-paint storefronts on Dillons once-prosperous West
Main Street are a mark of the towns now hardscrabble
existence: discount clothing stores, used-furniture and thrift
shops, liquidators of repossessed goods and payday-loan
operations have replaced family-run department stores. At the
site of the Bernanke familys former pharmacy, the Kintyre
House Grille and Tavern is one of the few locally owned
businesses going strong.
`College of Knowledge
Which presidential candidate will bring jobs, improve
schools, and fix health care drives the lunch conversation
among lawyers and businessmen at an open table they call “the
college of knowledge at The Charcoal Grill.
“This region and others in the South are facing the same
dilemma: textiles and farming have gone away, mainly
offshore, said Gene Butler, director of the Dillon County
development board.
Last year, some 500 jobs were lost with the closure of
a yarn maker and an upholstery factory. Every week, the local
newspaper advertises new foreclosures. And even though the
county is near three major ports, its hard to attract new
businesses to a region with low education and few resources.
“The main concern here is the economy and education, and
one drives the other, said Jackie Hayes, a Democratic state
legislator from Dillon who is also athletic director at the
high school. “People are trying to better themselves, and if
they got a better education, theyd have better jobs.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Indira Lakshmanan in Dillon, South Carolina, at
1277 or
