SC Supreme Court rules in favor of poor school districts

The S.C. Supreme Court has ruled that state government is not doing enough financially to guarantee a “minimally adequate” education for public school students in poor, rural areas of the state.

The court ruled 3-2 Wednesday in favor of plaintiff districts in the 21-year-old school equity suit, roughly two years after justices heard the most recent appeal in the case.

“This is an historical moment for the state of South Carolina, it truly is,” said Carl Epps, who filed the lawsuit for the school districts in 1993.

The court rejected state lawmakers’ arguments that decisions on school funding belong to the General Assembly, not the courts. Lawmakers had argued that they alone should determine what “minimally adequate” means.

Justices, however, found that the school districts must better identify solutions for their districts’ needs and work with state lawmakers on how to fix them.

Still, said Chief Justice Jean Toal, writing for the majority, state lawmakers must take the first step.

“… It is the Defendants who must take the principal initiative,” the ruling states, “as they bear the burden articulated by our State’s Constitution, and have failed in their constitutional duty to ensure that students in the Plaintiff Districts receive the requisite educational opportunity.”

Where children are born or where they live should not affect how they are educated, the court said.

“Thousands of South Carolina’s school children – the quintessential future of our state – have been denied this opportunity due to no more than historical accident.”

In 1999, the state Supreme Court ruled the education clause in South Carolina’s constitution guarantees children a “minimally adequate education” but left open questions about whether the plaintiff districts receive the kind of state financial support to fulfill that responsibility.

Joining Toal in the court’s majority were Donald Beatty and Kaye Hearn. Dissenting were Costa Pleicones and John Kittredge.

Bud Ferillo, producer and director of “Corridor of Shame: The Neglect of South Carolina’s Rural Schools,” a documentary highlighting some of the state’s poorest schools, was pleased with the court’s ruling.

“This is an unambiguous victory for all school children in South Carolina, 52 percent of whom live in poverty, far more than those when the suit was filed in 1993,” Ferillo said. “Now the struggle for compliance goes to the legislature for remedies.”

Sen. John Courson, R-Richland and chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said Wednesday he was reluctant to comment on the ruling until speaking to legislative lawyers and “some of our educator friends.”

Courson is part of a select committee looking at problems surrounding public school teachers. It’s been working through the summer and fall, he said.

“Two issues have manifested themselves: One is, we’ve got a teacher shortage and we need to address the pay equity issue compared with other states; and the other is a process of terminating an ineffective teacher. That gets to be laborious but we’re looking at that now.”

He noted the legislature goes back in session Jan. 13.

Courson added: “We just need to look at all this and put it all together.”

This story was originally published November 12, 2014 at 12:59 PM.