By Robert Kittle
A new 17-member task force got to work Monday on plans to revamp South Carolina’s school system. The Education Policy Review and Reform Task Force held its first meeting at the Statehouse.
House Speaker Jay Lucas formed the task force in response to the state Supreme Court’s ruling in the Abbeville case, in which poor, rural districts sued the state for not providing their students with an adequate education. The court ruled in favor of the districts and ordered state lawmakers to come up with a solution.
The task force is made up of lawmakers, educators from the plaintiff school districts, the state’s education superintendent, and business leaders.
Monday the task force heard from former governor and U.S. Secretary of Education Dick Riley, former state superintendents Barbara Nielsen and Inez Tenenbaum, and two law school professors.
Riley told the group they need to create comprehensive reform that changes things from infancy through high school and into college. That includes expanding pre-K programs and early childhood education. “In my view, if we invest in the front end to improve education we likely will reduce long-term costs on the back end, as you all know, for unemployment, for health care, social services, incarceration and the like,” he said.
He said colleges and technical schools must also be involved so students are ready for jobs or college. “We’ve made a lot of progress in creating manufacturing jobs over the last couple of years. A whole lot. However, the big problem is getting our young people where they can handle those jobs,” he said.
Not all the changes the task force recommends will be in the schools. USC School of Law professor Derek Black told the task force, “Quite simply, the court says we don’t have enough functioning buses. There are kids who spend four hours a day on the bus–two to get there, two to get home. They get up at 6; they get home at 6.”
The task force will meet throughout the year and will make its recommendations to state lawmakers next January.