DILLON — South Carolina’s policy of embracing “minimally adequate” schools is “not an acceptable standard,” retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark said Thursday.

Clark, one of eight Democratic presidential candidates campaigning for the Feb. 3 S.C. primary, spoke to a packed library at Dillon High School.

Dillon’s District 2 is one of eight rural school districts that have sued the state over what they claim to be inadequate and inequitable funding of public schools.

The S.C. Supreme Court’s 1999 ruling that schools only had to provide “minimally adequate” education, Clark said, is “just not acceptable.

“We should be talking about how to make our schools the best in the world, not how to make them ‘minimally adequate.’ This made me really angry when I read this.”

Education is the responsibility of the states, Clark said, “but the federal government must help level the playing field because failing schools hurt rural counties, communities of color and the future of our country.”

The fact that schools in rich neighborhoods are much better than schools in poor areas is creating an “education gap” in America, he said.

“For too many children in America, the education they get depends on where they live and how much money their parents have.”

If he’s elected, Clark said he would see that President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act is fully funded. Bush, Clark said, “hasn’t given (schools) the funding they need to meet those standards.”

The problem of funding gaps in public schools is not mere rhetoric in Dillon County.

Dillon District 2, which includes Dillon High, received an absolute rating of unsatisfactory on its 2003 state school report card. But its per pupil spending was $6,743 in 2003, while the median spending in the state is $7,412. Districts the state deems similar to Dillon 2 spend $8,549 per student.

The overwhelmingly rural county on the North Carolina border is home to 30,000 residents, 45 percent of whom are black. More than 23 percent of the county’s adults never finished high school, and 24 percent live below the poverty line, according to Census records.

Unemployment there hovers around 12 percent.

For those numbers to improve, Clark said, education has to improve.

“America owes every child the opportunity to succeed in life, the opportunity that can only come with a quality education.”

About half the crowd of 200 were Dillon High students. Given the chance to question Clark, they didn’t lob any softballs.

“At what age should children be allowed to have abortions without informing their parents?” one student asked.

Dillon County ranks 36th out of 46 S.C. counties in the number of births to mothers under the age of 18. In 2001, 7.1 percent of the children born in Dillon County were born to young mothers.

Clark said he favors abortion rights. “I don’t believe kids should have to inform the parent.”

Another student asked if a student who is convicted of a felony should be allowed back into public schools. “Yes,” Clark said, after the student has completed court-ordered punishment.

Student Brandon Brian, 18, a Dillon High senior, said Clark touched on issues important to him, like higher education. But he wasn’t sure it’s enough to sway his vote. Brian, who will vote for the first time on Feb. 3, said he’s leaning toward Howard Dean.

“But I thought it was a good speech,” Brian said. “The community is more involved” because Clark visited.

Clark returns to South Carolina on Monday, when he’ll take part in a number of Martin Luther King Day events.

Reach Gould Sheinin at (803) 771-8658 or asheinin@thestate.com