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Sanford backs funding ruling
* subhead~~Governor wants school changes, not appeal
By Aaron Gould Sheinin
Knight Ridder
Gov. Mark Sanford said Friday the state should not appeal Judge Thomas Cooper's decision in the landmark school funding lawsuit but instead should focus on efforts to improve early childhood education.
The governor's statement came a day after the judge ruled the state fails to prepare its youngest children for school. But Cooper also said the legislature provides safe, adequate school buildings, appropriate learning goals and "minimally competent teachers."
House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, said his "inclination is not to appeal," but he will not make a decision unilaterally.
A spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, said the Senate leader had not decided whether to support an appeal.
Sanford's statement puts more pressure on lawmakers to improve early childhood education, something many of them were already working toward.
Sen. John Courson, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said he is preparing legislation that would offer state-sanctioned kindergarten to, at least, all 4-year-olds from economically disadvantaged families.
Several House leaders, including Education Committee Chairman Ronny Townsend, R-Anderson, and Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, said all 4-year-olds should have access to kindergarten.
Sen. Luke Rankin, R-Horry, has a similar proposal, pre-filed in the Senate, that would require all school districts to offer a 4-year-old kindergarten program, but it would be voluntary.
In addition, Courson wants to keep alive First Steps, the state-funded early childhood program, through at least 2013. Created in 1999, it would be phased out July 1, 2007, if not reauthorized.
The 4-year-old kindergarten proposals would cost an estimated $50 million to $150 million each year, Courson said. The lower price tag is for full-day kindergarten for 4-year-olds from lower-income families. The highest cost would be to offer full-day kindergarten for all 4-year-olds.
Courson said the state either will pay to improve children's education now or pay for it later through social services and prisons.
"If we do not get our young people who are at-risk prepared for elementary school, middle school and high school, so they get an education, we're going to pay for them on the back end in our prison system," Courson said.
Courson said he, Sen. John Matthews, D-Orangeburg, and Sen. Wes Hayes, D-York, met with state Education Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum last week to discuss the idea of kindergarten for 4-year-olds. Everyone agreed there is a need, but no plan was settled on, he said.
Harrell plans to introduce legislation that addresses another part of the problem: children we who do poorly on their first PACT test, in the third grade.
Cooper said the state fails to meet its goals in preparing children to learn.
Harrell, who also is preparing a plan for kindergarten for 4-year-olds, said he interprets Cooper's ruling to suggest "the General Assembly spent a lot of money on the older grades, but that money comes too late." He interprets that to mean the state could shift money from higher grades to early childhood intervention.
Harrell's kindergarten program would incorporate public and private schools, out of necessity if nothing else.
"You're going to have to use existing preschool programs, including churches," Harrell said. "We could set up a reimbursement system so the poorer a person is, the more money they get toward [paying for] the 4-year-old kindergarten. But everybody ought to benefit."
Sanford offered no specific plans, but said he would work with lawmakers to expand programs such as First Steps.
Rankin's bill is modeled on an Oklahoma plan that requires school districts to offer voluntary 4-year-old kindergarten programs. It, too, is aimed at improving third-graders' performance on PACT, the state's primary benchmark test for what a child has learned.
The school-funding ruling says the state must invest more in "early childhood intervention at the pre-kindergarten level and continuing through at least grade three." An investment in K-4 is considered a start in that direction. Here's what expanding the program might cost.
$50 million-$100 million | That's how much new money the state would have to spend to expand K-4, state Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum says. It would pay tuition for poor children to attend a private day care where they are taught by certified early childhood teachers. Tenenbaum says 11,000 poor 4-year-olds attend school.
$52 million | What S.C. spends on 17,650 4-year-olds enrolled in a variety of pre-kindergarten programs. The funds are federal, state and local.
$395 million | What Florida spends on a program open to its 145,000 4-year-olds. Students receive three hours of instruction daily for the academic year at public schools or private preschool programs, as well as through faith-based organizations.
$52.5 million | What North Carolina's "More at Four" program spends annually on 15,500 4-year-olds. Students are taught at public or private preschools for about six hours a day during the academic year. The program targets poor kids and pays for half the cost of the $3,500-per-student, full-day program.
Lisa Michals, Knight Ridder
