Goodbye Minimally Adequate: Support the Constitutional Amendment for a High Quality Education in South Carolina

State Struggles to Overcome Legacy of Indifference
 
BY RON AIKEN, The Free-Times
5/13/09

“Thank God for Mississippi.”

For decades, that refrain has echoed across the Palmetto State, referring to the widely held belief that when it comes to rankings for education (or most anything else), South Carolina generally is 49th to Mississippi’s 50th. 

By JON BUTZON - Guest Columnist, The State
Saturday, Apr. 04, 2009

Sheri Few is right when she points out that “minimally adequate” is not in the state constitution (“Constitutional amendment won’t improve schools,” March 18). It is a phrase conjured up by the courts. It is sufficiently vague and ill-defined that it allows maximum flexibility and minimal accountability for those who should be held to the exact opposite standard.

Web site encourages support for 'high quality' schooling
March 31, 2009
By: Sierra Kelly, The Daily Gamecock

The Web site GoodbyeMinimallyAdequate.com gives the state a chance to have better schools and higher quality education.

The State, Columbia SC
By ANTON GUNN - Guest Columnist
March 29, 2009

As an African-American, I am blessed to live in a nation that is turning a new page in the 21st century.

Mar 24, 2009
By KATE CERVE
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In schools along South Carolina's poor Interstate 95 corridor, ceilings have collapsed and classroom temperatures dip below 50 degrees during the winter. Sewage backs up into the hallways on rainy days.

Reform is against the interests of many legislators
By Dwayne Green, Charleston City Paper
Febuary 25, 2009

Recently, I have become fascinated by the differences between states. We are one country, but each state has a different political climate, a different mix of cultures, and a different host of challenges.

Never has a little red wagon held so much! The kindergarteners above, as well as others from Forestbrook Elementary School in Myrtle Beach, SC, presented Bud Ferillo, creator of the Corridor Of Shame documentary and leader of the Goodbye Minimally Adequate campaign, with wagons filled with more than 20,000 signatures for the petition on behalf of the State Teachers Forum.

Bud Ferillo - Georgetown Times
Feb. 22, 2009

I am glad that the issue of funding South Carolina's public schools is receiving healthy discussion in the Georgetown Times and applaud the paper's recent editorial supporting the constitutional amendment to install "high quality education" as South Carolina's public education standard in place of "minimally adequate education."

By Kathleen Parker, The Washington Post
Sunday, February 22, 2009; Page A11

DILLON, S.C. -- When Bud Ferillo told me to dress warmly, it didn't occur to me that he was concerned I might be cold inside the classroom.