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

By Lee Tant, Times and Democrat
January 04, 2009

South Carolina’s public schools are constitutionally required to provide only a “minimally adequate” education for students.

State Sen. John Matthews, D-Bowman, wants to change that.

He has prefiled a bill that seeks to amend the state’s constitution to mandate that students receive a “high quality education allowing each student to reach his highest potential.” A similar bill has been filed in the House.

Gerogetown Times
1/6/2009

South Carolina will continue to be at the bottom of the national rankings in test scores and graduation rates unless it discards the language -- and the attitude -- from 1895 that the state's children only need a "minimally adequate" education.

That wording comes from the Jim Crow era when poor -- mostly black -- children could only aspire to a job in a cotton mill if they could escape the tobacco farm. Reasoning -- and it was correct -- suggested that a better educated workforce would leave the state for better opportunity. A "minimally adequate" education provided employees willing to work for less.

'Minimally adequate' sets bar too low for S.C. schools

The Sun News
Nov. 27, 2008

Does a good public education consist of teaching kids how to read, write and perform basic math calculations? Of course not, but that's all the S.C. Constitution requires of the public schools. Small wonder that such high-performing school districts as Horry County's are the exception in South Carolina.

All public schools should challenge all students to learn much more than that. The only reliable way to apply such pressure uniformly is to fix the Constitution. To that end, a growing coalition of S.C. legislators, educators, business leaders and public-school supporters to amend the Constitution's education article.

Democrats circulate petition to change S.C. constitution’s language
By GINA SMITH - The State
Nov. 28, 2008

Seeking to capitalize on their party’s “yes, we can” enthusiasm — and, perhaps, launch a bid for governor

 — two S.C. Democrats have launched a petition drive to change the state constitution to guarantee S.C. children a “high quality education.”

BY AL DOZIER - The Free Times
Issue #21.47 :: 11/19/2008 - 11/25/2008

“We are in crisis and we are hardly talking about it,” says Bud Ferillo, speaking to an audience of about 200 at Columbia’s Shandon United Methodist Church on Nov. 16.

Ferillo is president of Ferillo & Associates, a Columbia public relations and advertising firm.

His award-winning film documented decrepit conditions of schools in rural parts of the state along Interstate 95: sewage seeping into hallways, roofs leaking and heating systems failing.

By Bristow Marchant, The Clinton Chronicle
November 12, 2008

Is your child's education "minimally adequate"?

That was the question asked Thursday during a presentation at Presbyterian College, and the answer depends largely on where you live.

EVENT DATE: October 20, 2008

CONTACT: Maggie Turner, 864-656-6692
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WRITER: Jessica Lance, 864-656-2061
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CLEMSON — Clemson University students will show the documentary “The Corridor of Shame: The Neglect of South Carolina’s Rural Schools” about the challenges that rural South Carolina school districts have faced in the struggle to fund adequate education to all its students. The screening is open to the public and will be at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 25, in meeting room A in the Hendrix Student Center.

The documentary is being shown as part of Make a Difference Day, a national celebration of helping others.

Following the screening, there will be an explanation of the events in South Carolina’s rural school districts that have taken place since the documentary was made in 2005. There will be an opportunity for community members and students to sign the Goodbye Minimally Adequate petition to replace the words “a minimally adequate education” with “a high quality education, allowing each child to reach his highest potential” in the South Carolina state constitution. 

by Patrick Moore, GwdToday.com
October 15, 2008

The Ninety Six District 52 School Board moved swiftly through their meeting last night.  First Superintendent Dan Powell put forth a letter in support of ending the minimally adequate wording on the state’s constitution and asked the board for their approval.  
The state constitution of South Carolina says that we will provide a, “Minimally Adequate” education to our kids. Those in favor of a change to the constitution say that the words, “Minimally Adequate” should be changed to “High Quality.”   Although NS is in support of this change there is much work to be done to make this state constitutional change.  There is a movement currently underway to get 1 million signatures in support of this change by 2010.

Advocates want state to aim higher than ‘minimally adequate’
By RANDY BURNS, The Item
September 21, 2008
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A statewide push to collect signatures of support for eliminating the concept of minimally adequate education is getting some attention in the tri-county area.

The Lee County Board of Education authorized District Superintendent Dr. Cleo Richardson to circulate a petition in Lee County schools.

“I didn’t ask the board to support the petition but to allow it to be circulated in our schools,” Richardson said. “I certainly support it, and a couple of board members approached me saying they wanted to endorse it as well. We need to do more than just provide the minimum. Do you want to go to a doctor who is minimally adequate?”

by Michael Rebell, National Access Network,
August 2008

Litigation is often necessary to spur education funding reform, but successful litigations—and especially successful remedies to adequacy cases—usually involve coordinated media, public engagement, and political activities. Recent events in South Carolina and Illinois demonstrate how multi-pronged approaches, involving both legal and nonlegal tactics, combine to promote education reform.

South Carolina:
Since 1993, South Carolina has been entangled in legal proceedings in Abbeville County School District v. State, a case that is challenging the constitutionality of the state’s public education system. The State Supreme Court held in 1999 that the state constitution calls for the General Assembly to “provide the opportunity for each child to receive a minimally adequate education,” which includes the opportunity to acquire, among other things, the ability to read and write, comprehend mathematics and physical science, and understand economic, social, and political systems. In 2005, the trial court declared that the state had indeed failed its constitutional responsibilities to provide adequate preschool education and other interventions through grade three. In regard to the plaintiffs’ claims of educational inadequacy for all other levels of schooling, however, the court found in favor of the state. Cross appeals of all of these issues are now pending before the South Carolina Supreme Court. Oral arguments took place in June, and a final decision is expected in the fall.