A joint lobbying, education and legal threat approved by the Beaufort County Board of Education and the County Council is a positive step for taxpayers in perhaps the state's fastest-growing school district.

The district grows by about 600 students annually, and it costs money to operate schools. Unfortunately, because of the 1977 Education Finance Act formula that incorporates property values as a measuring tool to allocate funding per pupil, Beaufort and Charleston counties have been severely punished.

The state's funding formula doesn't take into account wages, and Beaufort County lags the state average because it has little industry. Clearly, the formula should be rethought.

In the meantime, the board of education and the County Council have agreed to spend as much as $125,000 each to hire someone to steer them to the right legislators. Members of the council and the board of education might call these lawyers by whatever name they want, but the result is the same. They are lobbying (educating) lawmakers to make a change in an inequitable law.

The council and lawmakers should keep two points in mind as they lobby and threaten to sue:

The state's poorest counties have received a pauper's share of education finance money over the nearly three decades the formula has been used. Beaufort won't get sympathy in Columbia; and

When the Beaufort Regional Chamber of Commerce's committee charged with swaying opinion on base closure went into action, everyone said they would use homegrown talent to do the job. The same may be true this time. The county has former legislators, a former lieutenant governor, countless retired educators, public relations executives and lobbyists living among us.

The county's Legislative Delegation already should know who the key players are and who the swing votes are. They could do the directing, and local folks could tell the story that needs to be articulated. We don't have to spend the money on a fancy, high-powered lawyer-lobbyist. Save the money until it is necessary.