MANNING, S.C. - South Carolina's "one-size-fits-all" approach to funding schools makes it difficult for some of the state's poorest students to get a decent education, state Sen. John Land testified Monday as a lengthy school funding trial resumed.

The state hasn't given schools enough money to adequately fund education during the past three decades, said Land, the first witness on the stand since the trial took a break last fall.

About three dozen rural school districts sued the state, claiming the way the state funds education shortchanges schools. Entering its eighth week, the trial is expected to turn more political as high-ranking education officials and legislators testify.

Land said the state funding system does little to help low-income students, noting that each school district is allocated about the same amount per student. If that's not enough, affluent districts can make up the amount they need, but poor districts with weaker tax bases cannot, he said.

Schools are funded with a mix of state and federal dollars along with local property taxes.

The state needs to study districts to determine how much money each one actually needs, said Land, D-Manning and a member of the powerful Senate Finance Committee.

As it stands now, no one in the General Assembly really knows how much it costs to educate South Carolina's children, he said.

"As long as we have that one-size-fits-all ... we're not going to fit an education program to the children," Land said. "That's why the children in these districts are being left behind."

But Robert Stepp, a lawyer representing the state, said it's untrue that school districts get the same amount of money across the board. He said state school report card data shows that six of the eight districts suing the state spend at least $293 more per pupil than the average school district.

At the high end, Allendale schools, taken over by the state in 1999, spent $10,536 per student in 2002. That beats the state average by $3,464, the data showed. Only Dillon District 2 and Marion District 7 spent less than the state average, the report cards showed.

Land, a 30-year legislative veteran, said the General Assembly has never done all it could to find money to fund education at levels required by law.

"By our own standards, we're not funding our education programs as we said we would," Land said. "We've indicted ourselves."

The state Education Finance Act formula for funding schools requires the state to give districts $2,201 for the current fiscal year, but legislators allocated only $1,777 per student in the current budget, failing to uphold their own mandate, Land said.

Legislators repeatedly have underfunded schools and it's gotten worse as the state's budget has tightened, Land said.

Testimony will continue in the trial through Jan. 16 then resume in February.