(Manning) Jan. 11, 2004 - A landmark school-funding
trial is back in court this week. The trial pits eight
of the state's poorest school districts against the
State of South Carolina.
The districts are challenging the way the state
provides funding, claiming the current system
allows huge inequalities between schools in poor areas
and schools in wealthy communities. The trial began last
July.
A judge will decide if the state is providing
students with a "minimally adequate education" ordered
by the state Supreme Court decision in 1996.
This week educators from Orangeburg and Dillion
school districts will testify.
Manning Senator John Land says South Carolina has
never given its schools enough money to adequately
educate its children. He was the first to testify
as trial resumed in the lawsuit last Monday.
Steve Morrison, an attorney representing school
districts suing the state, says the political side of
the case will receive courtroom time in the spring. The
original lawsuit was filed 10 years ago. Judge Tommy
Cooper has scheduled sessions for this month and next,
but it could be nearly summer before all the testimony
is in.
Morrison says others testifying in the upcoming
months include State Superintendent of Education Inez
Tenenbaum, state Representative Gilda Cobb-Hunter, and
Jo Anne Anderson, executive director of the Education
Oversight Committee.
State funding for all public schools has been
steadily decreasing over years of budget cutting, from
more than $2000 per student in the 2000-2001 school year
to only $1777 in the 2003-2004 year.
The issues in the suit have been argued in other
states, and in at least 18 of them the school districts
have won. If that happens in South Carolina, some
experts predict funding being pulled from more affluent
districts and redistributed to poorer ones. It could
mean higher taxes in those wealthier areas of the
state.
The state's attorneys say districts are getting
enough money, but some haven't used it wisely. The start
of their case is still weeks away.
Reported by Jack
Kuenzie
updated 10:15am by Chris
Rees
