S.C.'s No. 1 priority

South Carolina is proof that the traditional power struggle between the executive and legislative branches of government doesn’t go away because one party is in charge of both.

Republican Gov. Mark Sanford and the GOP-controlled General Assembly already are taking up where they left off last year – jousting over budget issues. The governor’s budget proposal sets aside $200 million to pay down the state’s debt, but lawmakers say that diverting so much money to the debt will jeopardize sufficient funding for education and health care.

This indicates it’s going to be another interesting, and bruising, legislative year in the Palmetto State – made even more so because Circuit Court Judge Thomas Cooper will hand down a ruling on the South Carolina school equity case.

That’s the trial in which eight poor, rural school districts sued the legislature for not coming across with enough money to provide public-school students with a constitutionally guaranteed “minimally adequate education.” Not a great education or even a good education, mind you, but simply minimally adequate.

Judge Cooper heard more than 100 days of testimony over 16 months before winding up the trial early last month. His decision – which will be appealed to the state’s highest court however it goes – is not expected until after the legislature adjourns in June. He’s waiting to see if his decision could be affected by what the lawmakers do before then.

If the legislature loses the case – which has happened in several other states – then that could force a tax increase. School districts are funded primarily by local property taxes, augmented by state revenues, which is why the poor districts sued. Their tax base is too narrow to keep raising property taxes, as Aiken and other better-off counties do, to meet the “minimally adequate” requirement. They need more help from the state.One source of school revenue that lawmakers are considering is to sharply increase the state sales tax, perhaps even getting rid of the hated property tax altogether. As Rep. Roland Smith, R-Warrenville, chairman of a key House subcommittee on education, says, “It’s something worth looking at as long as you ensure the availability of the money, and you’re not allowing the state to reinstate the property tax.”Many Aiken Countians already are rebelling against boosting property taxes to pay for their own schools. Imagine the outrage if their property taxes were hiked to pay for schools outside their district. That could happen if Judge Cooper and the appellate courts rule in favor of the eight rural school districts.

The fact is, “minimally adequate” is a shamefully low educational standard to meet. If there are districts in South Carolina that are not meeting it, then the legislature shouldn’t need the courts to tell them to get on the stick.

They should be moving on their own. How they do it can be worked out during the legislative session. For now, they simply need to commit that they’ll get the job done. Even by its own standards, it’s been years since the legislature lived up to its education-funding commitment. This year, lawmakers should make that their No. 1 priority.