Lawmakers told: Think education

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"It's pathetic, the situation that the state has found itself in," she said. "There does need to be accountability, but there also needs to be more money for schools. That's the most important asset we have for the future."

She is one of seven Greenville County residents asked by The Greenville News to suggest ideas and priorities for lawmakers, who return to the Statehouse with a budget proposal from Gov. Mark Sanford that addresses a $350 million revenue shortfall.

Residents who offered opinions include a small business owner, a teacher, a firefighter, a minister, a retiree and the president of a local arts foundation.

Most of the seven said they want lawmakers to focus most on improving education but have different ideas on what to do.

They suggested legislators should reduce unemployment, improve mental-health services, make state agencies more efficient, and find a funding solution for special purpose districts, which supply money for fire and recreation departments, among other things. None of the seven mentioned cutting taxes as a priority.

In fact, Perlman and others said they would support tax increases if the money would go toward education.

"I want to know I can send my child to a public school and she's going to get the best education possible," she said. "And I'm just not convinced of that in Greenville. And I know in other areas of the state, it's the same thing. It's just a sad state of affairs. It's not just South Carolina. It's all over the country. But we need to pay attention to it here."

Businessman Jon McClure also believes lawmakers need to improve education but doesn't want them to spend more on it.

"I'm from the school that doesn't believe money is going to improve education," said McClure, 43, president of ISO Poly Films in Gray Court. "You're never going to meet an educator that has enough money. I have one child in a private school. The school is an amazingly efficient operation, and they do it on a fraction of what the state and the counties spend on schools. So how can it be money that fixes the problem?"

McClure believes the greatest problem needing lawmakers' attention is unemployment. He wants to see improved national trade policies.

"I believe at the state level we can pressure our United States senators and representatives to truly look into a manufacturing policy," he said. "Is manufacturing important to this economy? Is it important to South Carolina, is it important to this nation, to Greenville County? The trade policies that we have tend to be dominated by the major corporations, and most people in South Carolina don't work for big multinational corporations."

He also wants lawmakers to run government like a business.

"How come we are manufacturing three times the goods in America with the same amount of workers? Why doesn't the government have to do the same thing? Instead it continues to grow. In the worst of times, government continues to grow."

While both Sanford and various lawmakers have proposed spending caps, McClure thinks they should go further this year.

"Your budget starts today with what you got last year," he proposed. "You have to figure out how to make it with what you got. If we flatline spending for 10 years, you talk about reducing the size of government. They would become more efficient."

The businessman also believes lawmakers should do what they can to remove duplication in agencies. As president of the Boys Home of the South, McClure said he has seen the impact of duplication on children's services. He wants lawmakers to monitor how budgets are cut.

"When the Legislature says to the Department of Social Services, 'You have to cut your budget,' you know who gets cut?" he asked. "The caseworker. The front line. Who gets protected is the bureaucrat. It's backward. If anything, the front line needs to be expanded. That's something I've witnessed firsthand."

The Rev. James Nesbitt, 46, pastor of Shady Grove Baptist Church in Pelzer, said he would hate to increase taxes but would want lawmakers to do so if it's necessary to improve education.

"I just think it's that important," said Nesbitt, who lives in Mauldin. "I am concerned with education. It just appears we're not setting our priorities properly. I'm concerned with the low pay for teachers. And if we're not appropriating enough funds to education, our children are going to suffer."

He also wants lawmakers to appropriate more for law enforcement so more officers can be hired and at better pay. He said officers risk their lives for salaries most would refuse.

"They deserve to be paid better," he said. "I appreciate what they do. I couldn't honestly tell you I would do it for the kind of compensation they receive."

The minister also said while making Martin Luther King's birthday a Greenville County holiday is a local issue, lawmakers should help make it happen.

"It continues to place a shadow over South Carolina," he said. "I think it is a matter now where our lawmakers need to be concerned. I would definitely like to see them do something to address that issue."

Though Berea firefighter J.J. Arrowood has fought fires for 13 years, he wants lawmakers to focus on education.

"We've got to figure out ways to get the counties more money so the schools can operate," said Arrowood, a 33-year-old father of a 2-year-old.

He wants lawmakers to increase the share of lottery money for kindergarten through 12th grade instead of higher education.

He is on the board of the Greenville County Recreation Commission and is concerned about the scheduled reduction in car taxes, something he said will hurt special purpose districts.

"How do they expect the small people, like the recreation districts and fire departments, to operate now that money is so tight and they are going to continuously take away money?" he asked. "How is that shortfall going to be made up?"

Greenville County teacher of the year Laura Patterson also wants lawmakers to focus on a shortfall, that of education.

"It has been five years since the Legislature fully funded what the Budget and Control Board has set as the basic student cost," said Patterson, who teaches math at Bryson Middle School in Simpsonville. "The effect of losing $25 million for Greenville County is that we had to cut programs, course offerings and teacher positions. It's very difficult to be effective when the class size is increasing rather than becoming more manageable."

Her own classes maxed out at 35 last year, Patterson said, but she has seen the impact of funding cuts firsthand. Teachers are gone, programs canceled and after-school tutoring lost.

"At the same time, we've raised our standards for students and for our teachers, and we've increased our accountability," she said. "It's just a challenge to be successful without adequate funding."

Patterson, 48, said she would like lawmakers not only to restore education funding to the levels required by law but also spare the national certification bonuses from the budget knife. Teachers who earn national board certification receive pay supplements of $7,500 a year. Sanford has recommended a moratorium on new supplements because of the budget crisis.

She said she would support an increase in taxes to pay for new education funding.

"As a parent of school-aged children and as a teacher seeing what we need, I'd say yes, it's that important," she said of tax increases. "I don't see how we can afford not to. It's shortsighted not to realize we need to put the money where the greatest need is. And that is with a good education for all of our children."

Nancy Taylor agrees. A retired medical editor for the Greenville Hospital System and former teacher, Taylor believes lawmakers need to improve school funding.

"I'd like to see somebody have the nerve to reinstate taxes that will help improve our infrastructure and our educational system," she said. "The cutting of taxes has made those things suffer. And obviously the Education Lottery has not given us enough money to improve our universities, and the public schools need more help too."

She said while the Upstate may be better off as far as roads, "there are some parts of the state that are pretty desperate for better roads."

Taylor said she is open to lawmakers' ideas about reforming the education system but doesn't think reforms or school choice will solve the state's problems.

"I don't think not adding more money will make the school system better," she said.

She would also like to see improvements in the health care of the state's most vulnerable, such as children and the elderly.

"The lack of equal access to health care in this state is pretty pitiful," she said. "I think programs for children and for the elderly need to be bolstered."

Susan Cyr, 58, general counsel for Liberty Life Insurance and president of the Emrys Foundation, a local arts organization, wants lawmakers to focus on education.

"My wish is that the Legislature keep its commitment by funding at the highest levels, even if it is at the expense of other agencies," she said. "I believe that the education of all of its citizens is key to the success of the state."

Cyr, who has no children, said she would support a tax increase for schools. She said she doesn't understand how any adult can oppose supporting public education.

"I believe we should pay for education, even if it means taxes," she said.