Education wins in House plan

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State House lawmakers recently handed public education a couple of important victories by meeting state funding formulas for the first time since the year 2000. That's potentially great news for parents and the 670,000 students who attend South Carolina's public schools.

State senators and Gov. Mark Sanford should follow the lead of House lawmakers as work continues on the final budget. Much to their credit, House lawmakers met a top priority for the state's educators: providing an additional $315 million to fully support a core funding formula known as the base student cost. That, by itself, will boost the annual expenditure per pupil by more than $400.

For the past four years, lawmakers had funded the base student cost at mid-1990s levels — or late 1970s levels on an inflationary basis. Lawmakers this year also provided full funding in most other basic education categories. Full funding means that local school districts will not have to dig as deeply into local funds for teacher salaries and other basic expenses.

House lawmakers also set aside $18 million for school buses, $12.3 million for instructional materials and $10 million for summer schools. In virtually every main category, House lawmakers proposed funding public education at higher levels than did Gov. Sanford. The governor, for instance, had set aside only $8 million for school buses.

House lawmakers, however, didn't give the schools everything education advocates might have hoped for. For instance, teachers will not be receiving the 4 percent across-the-board pay hike that all other state employees will get. Teachers did get a 1.6 percent cost-of-living adjustment. With regular annual increases based on experience, teachers may receive an average of 3.2 percent more in pay next year. But teachers with 22 years or more of experience will get only the 1.6 percent adjustment.

In addition, the $18 million lawmakers have set aside for school buses won't go very far. The state Department of Education may need that money just to pay for the fuel and ongoing maintenance of aging buses currently in the fleet. The state needs about $50 million every year to keep the state's 5,600-bus fleet from getting older and more unreliable. Lawmakers in the past 20 years have rarely funded school buses at adequate levels.

The state Department of Education, meanwhile, would lose $2 million for training teachers in the academic standards as well as money in important areas such as technology.

The state has a long way to go in rebuilding the public educational infrastructure after almost a half-decade of cutbacks. Overall, however, the House budget would accomplish much good by providing full funding in key categories.