An influential Republican lawmaker takes the stand today as a defense witness for the Legislature as South Carolina’s school funding trial resumes in Manning.

Rep. Bobby Harrell of Charleston, chairman of the House budget-writing committee, will face questioning about how he and fellow lawmakers make decisions about providing money to support the state’s 1,100 public schools. Harrell is the lone witness scheduled to testify in what will be just two days of trial before another lengthy recess.

Eight rural school systems are suing the Legislature in hopes of forcing state government to provide more money to operate their schools. More than 80 percent of the 18,000 students in those school systems are black and considered poor by federal income standards.

The rural districts insist they cannot afford to provide the same quality of education as their urban and suburban counterparts do.

Bobby Stepp, an attorney defending the state against the lawsuit, said his questioning of Harrell will focus on letting Harrell explain “how the state has acted to support schools, economically, and as a matter of policy.”

“We’re going to try and meet those issues head on,” Stepp said.

Harrell, a lawmaker since 1993, helped craft a blue-ribbon panel report on school reform in 1997 and co-authored a bill that resulted in passage of the Education Accountability Act of 1998. That legislation includes sections spelling out how poor-performing schools qualify for extra state aid, including funding for after-school tutoring, expert teacher-coaches, and summer school.

“We’re looking forward to hearing him testify,” said Carl Epps, a lawyer representing schools that initially filed the suit in 1993.

The plaintiffs insist long-standing state funding policies have denied children in poor, rural communities an opportunity to receive a “minimally adequate education,” which the state Supreme Court defined in 1999 as an “ability to read, write, and speak the English language, and knowledge of mathematics and physical science.”

The trial began July 28, 2003. Monday marks the 87th day of testimony.

Reach Robinson at (803) 771-8482 or brobinson@thestate.com