Senate Rejects Compromise Budget Measure

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A surprise move by the Senate on Thursday night means that the state budget for next year won't be on Gov. Mark Sanford's desk until next week at the earliest.

A committee of lawmakers had spent all night Wednesday hammering out a $5.3 billion compromise plan that closes a $500 million gap.

The House approved the final version 72-37 on Thursday morning.

Senators debated the measure Thursday afternoon but forced it to go back to the conference committee because wording was changed on a provision dealing with the state's Palmetto scholarships.

The General Assembly had hoped to vote on the spending plan Thursday to avoid extending the session past its scheduled end on June 5. Now an extended session is all but certain.

After the House passed the budget, some educators and Democratic lawmakers call the Republican measure "irresponsible" because it includes about $240 million in education spending cuts.

Dozens of House Democrats voted against the final version of the budget.

House Minority Leader Rep. James E. Smith said Thursday that "the Republican budget mess forces local school districts to raise property taxes or be faced with firing more than 6,000 teachers statewide."

In Greenville County schools, the cuts total about $28 million, meaning as many as 300 teaching positions will likely be eliminated in addition to 50 jobs at district offices cut earlier this month.

That potential decrease has scrambled planning for next school year.

At Beck Academy, administrators have been unable to finalize a class schedule for next year, a task that is usually completed well before the end of the school year.

School administrators said that they are still unsure how many teaching positions Beck will lose and how those cuts will affect the classes students can take.

"I don't know that our parents and the public really understand how critical this is, because they have never seen teachers lose their jobs," Beck Academy principal Brodie Bricker told WYFF News 4's Beth Brotherton.

Bricker said that Beck will likely lose at least four teachers: one sixth-grade teacher and three eighth-grade teachers.

That will mean that Bricker will have to cut foreign language class, art and maybe band.

"We'll do the best we can with what we have, but teachers and students will have to understand it will not be business as usual," Bricker said.

In addition to dropped classes, teachers will lose planning periods and may have to teach students in more than one grade, or in subjects they aren't certified to teach, Bricker said.

Class sizes will increase to about 30 students per class, Bricker said.

"It is difficult to teach a class of more than 24 students," Beck Academy teacher Jan Edwards told News 4. "Twenty-two is better. It is hard to get around to every student in the classroom."

The budget compromise approved by the House and Senate set education spending at just over $1,700 per student, the lowest level in a decade.

"When you go back and fund education at 1995 level and you expect 2004 results, that is not going to happen," Bricker said.

If the Senate passes the bill as expected before midnight Thursday, Sanford will have to make budget veto decisions before lawmakers adjourn for the year next week.

Greenville school district officials said that they hoped retirements and resignations would mean they no teachers would have to be laid off.

The district said that not as many teachers as planned are retiring this year, putting that plan in doubt.

Previous Stories:

• May 29, 2003: Conference Committee OKs State Budget Plan
• May 27, 2003: Budget Plans Compete For Federal Cash
• May 22, 2003: Greenville Principals Detail Cuts' Effects
• May 14, 2003: Budget Ax Falls Again For Greenville Schools
• May 12, 2003: Greenville Schools Could Cut 300 Teachers