The Opinion Blog

How to Succeed in Business: Really Trying

Saturday’s first editorial:

At 8:30 Saturday morning, just under 1,000 new graduates of Coastal Carolina University will march across the stage in Brooks Stadium and turn their tassels from right to left. On Monday evening, hundreds more from Horry-Georgetown Technical College will follow suit at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center.

Many of those graduates will be hoping to head into the workforce, looking to land their first professional job in the post-college adult world. And many of them may be in for a rude awakening.

On the Upswing at Last

Is the area poised for a comeback? Sunday’s editorial sure hopes so:

Spring is nearly here. Blooms are starting to peek out and pollen will soon fill the air. It’s an optimistic time of year as the world wakes from its wintry slumber, and this year we’ve got even more reason for optimism: building signs are popping up around town, and construction sites are buzzing once more.

The national jobless report released Friday morning held good news for all of us concerned about the economy, but particularly good news for our region, as many of our main industries were among the top job creators. Construction businesses added 48,000 jobs. Leisure and hospitality added 24,000. And retailers added 23,700. All three are major drivers of our local employment situation, and after years of attempting to claw our way out of the hole dug in the recession, it’s encouraging to see some daylight at last.

Lazarus Stands Out

Sunday’s editorial weighs in with our thoughts on the race for Horry County Council chairman:

As Horry County ponders who to put into the role of County Council chairman, two major, ongoing issues come to the fore.

The first is no surprise. It’s the same concern we’ve had for the past few years: How can we improve our local economy and get more people back to work? While local jobless numbers are showing some welcome improvement, our recovery from the crash of a few years ago remains painstakingly slow. More than 11 percent of Horry County workers were without jobs in December, the latest numbers available from the state Department of Employment and Workforce. Job seekers in our region outnumbered job openings 5 to 1.

Why the Minimum Wage Debate Matters to Myrtle Beach

Friday’s second editorial explains why local folks should be paying attention to the ongoing debate over raising the minimum wage:

When the president unveiled his plan to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 an hour during his State of the Union address earlier this month, we sat up and paid attention. After all, the Myrtle Beach metro area, with its emphasis on tourism and hospitality industries, consistently ranks right at the bottom of the nation when it comes to hourly and annual earnings for local workers.

The Perils of Privatization

Thursday’s editorial attempts to explain why privatizing the state’s school bus system really isn’t a great deal for taxpayers or students:

If the state budget decreases and the size of S.C. government shrinks, does it mean taxpayers are also benefiting and paying less money? Not necessarily.

Take school bus privatization, which Gov. Nikki Haley proposed once more in her 2013 executive budget, released Dec. 20.

What We're Thankful For

Thursday’s editorial gets in on the holiday spirit:

Today, we as a nation set apart a time specifically for giving thanks, a day for looking back upon the gifts of the past year and reflecting on all the good that we have borne witness to. Rooted in our country’s harsh Puritan heritage and made official in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln in the midst of our worst trial as a nation, the holiday is more than just a time to gather with family and friends and loosen our belts a notch or two.

Without Great Choice for President, It's Obama

Sunday’s editorial offers the editorial board’s thoughts on the presidential election:

Few things about this presidential election have lent themselves to unambiguous, clear decisions, despite what the campaigns and their diehard supporters might like us to believe. Neither of the major candidates is a miraculous savior or unmitigated fiend. Both stand before U.S. voters with significant high and low points, and nobody has managed to leap to the fore as the obviously better choice.

For proof, you need look no further than the latest polling data. We give our fellow Americans credit for being fairly smart and invested in the future of this nation, and as such, if the decision on picking our next leader were an easy one, we wouldn’t be coming down to the wire with two candidates that are still neck and neck.

Rice for U.S. House

Saturday’s editorial shares our recommendation for who should be the first representative from our new 7^th Congressional District:

Color us frustrated, exasperated and disappointed.

After having high hopes for Democrat Gloria Bromell Tinubu, who has many of the qualities necessary to succeed in Congress, her recent behavior has revealed enough of her character to sour us on her campaign.

Libraries, Who Needs 'Em? We Do

Friday’s editorial comes out in defense of libraries, as we near the end of National Friends of Libraries Week:

“I have always imagined paradise as a kind of library.” – Jorge Luis Borges

Do we still need libraries?

One of the complaints leveled more than once at the proposed Georgetown County sales tax increase on the ballot Nov. 6 is that there’s no reason to spend another $11.3 million on libraries in the area. After all, nobody uses them anymore now that we have the Internet and ebooks. Who goes to a boring old stuffy library these days? Right?

Hard Questions About College

Sunday’s editorial asks some tough questions about who’s going to college and why they aren’t succeeding:

Sandwiched inside the article The Sun News published last month when data on local, state and national SAT scores were announced was this sobering sentence: “The College Board considers 1,550 a benchmark for indicating college success.”

Those who read that far into the news story came upon the benchmark after learning that Horry County’s average SAT score was 1,484, Georgetown County’s average was 1,364, the state average was 1,431 and the national average was 1,498.

In other words, the average student SAT test taker, whether on the local, state or national level, is not considered likely to succeed in college. Those results come on top of similar ones from the ACT test, the other popular college entrance exam. A report this year by the organization behind that test found that only 25 percent of ACT-tested high school graduates nationwide were adequately prepared for college in all four subjects it covers: English, reading, math and science.