A law passed last year allowed the state Education Board to study and establish a uniform start date for South Carolina schools.

However, some lawmakers say they thought last year's law would only let the Education Board study the issue, not make a decision.

The state Education Board voted in December to give schools a two-week window to start classes. The uniform start time would allow coastal communities to keep student workers through the summer tourism season as well as extending family vacation time.

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During two days of debate this week, lawmakers say they did not intend to give the Education Board the authority to change the school start date when they approved an amendment supported by Sen. Luke Rankin, D-Myrtle Beach - the Horry County tourist mecca.

"We had defeated and thwarted most of the senator from Horry's diligent efforts," Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, said Thursday. "There was no light of day on that amendment. None."

Martin said Rankin didn't properly explain his amendment that was added to a large bill filled with dozens of permanent law changes. "It was not done in an underhanded way," Rankin said. "It was not done in a way that tricked you or me."

This week's debate was spurred when bills were introduced that would exempt some schools from the new start date. That should not happen, said Sen. Scott Richardson, R-Hilton Head Island.

"The fact is state money goes to pay for every one of these schools and how they operate," Richardson said. "If you're going to take state money to run your school, then you're going to have to listen to state rules about it.

"You may not like that, but that's the way it is."

Public hearings on the issue will be held across the state, said Senate Education Committee Chairman Warren Giese, R-Columbia. He expects a bill dealing with a uniform school start date to be worked out by May.

--From the Friday, January 31, 2003 online edition of the Augusta Chronicle