COLUMBIA - Rural educators say the state budget lawmakers passed for the upcoming fiscal year does not do enough to improve early childhood education as recommended by a judge's ruling in a school-funding lawsuit.

Florence District 2 superintendent Steve Quick says the $23 million earmarked for full-day kindergarten for 4-year-olds from needy families in poor communities is inadequate.

Quick's district was among those suing the state over the way it funds public schools.

Others in similar situations say the money includes a mandate to provide full-day classes, but not the resources to accomplish that.

Dillon 3 superintendent John Kirby, for example, says his biggest need is classroom space.

"Even if they send me that money to reach more 4-year-olds," Kirby said, "I don't have anywhere to put them."

The $23 million in next year's budget is a one-year commitment the Legislature made to address concerns raised in Judge Thomas Cooper Jr.'s ruling in the lawsuit that challenged the state's "minimally adequate education" standard for public schools.

Cooper ruled that the state meets that obligation for kindergarten through 12th grade but needs to do more for early childhood education.

Wilbur Cave is a former lawmaker and community activist in Allendale County - one of the state's poorest counties. Cave said he was encouraged by the money allocated for the state's neediest children.

"Because I'm an optimist, I'll say it's a good first bite of the elephant," Cave said. "But we have an awful long way to go."

Others, such as attorney Carl Epps, who filed the funding fairness lawsuit on behalf of three dozen school districts in 1993, said the Legislature's actions show it continues to try to do the least amount possible for public education.

"On balance it just reinforces the thought that our leadership is not committed to advancing education in South Carolina," he said. "The money is not going to be sufficient to educate children raised in poverty or elsewhere."

Others echoed that sentiment.

"I understand you've got to start slow, but maybe it needs to be a little faster than that," said Rick Reames, director of the Pee Dee Education Center, a consortium of 19 school districts.