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

'Minimally adequate'

Changing state constitution will result in more lawsuits, not better schools
The Spartanburg Herald Journal
August 19, 2008

State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex wants to improve the state's schools, but changing the state's constitution is the wrong way to work toward that goal.

The state Supreme Court has ruled that the constitution requires the state to provide a "minimally adequate" public education system. That standard understandably rankles educators, including Rex.

But many education advocates have made too much of the standard, focusing their efforts in the wrong direction. That standard is a minimum, but they speak of it as if it were a maximum limit.

The General Assembly must provide a minimally adequate school system, but the constitution does not prohibit it from providing a much better school system. The constitutional standard does not hold this state back. It doesn't limit South Carolina in any way.

But changing it would. It would take funding decisions out of the legislature and into the courts.

Rex says he wants to change the state constitution to require a "high quality" school system. But what does that mean? Rex's definition of high quality is probably different from Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell's, which is surely different from Gov. Mark Sanford's.

Whose vision of high quality will the state use? That would be the subject of endless litigation.

Every school district that doesn't think it's getting enough money from the state would sue, claiming the state isn't providing a "high quality" education in its community.
That's how the "minimally adequate" standard was created. Poor school districts claimed the state wasn't giving them enough money and the constitution required more. The court settled that argument with its ruling. The law is now settled.

But it won't be if the constitutional standard is changed. A clear and final definition of "high quality" is impossible. There would be no end to the lawsuits.
And they wouldn't be limited to school districts. When a lawmaker's or educator's proposed educational program isn't adopted, he would be able to sue.

When little Johnny's mother becomes upset because her son's school offers only French, Spanish and Mandarin, and she believes he would flourish only if he could study Portuguese, she would be able to sue, claiming he isn't getting the "high quality" education the constitution requires.

Changing the constitution would cause nothing but problems, and it's unnecessary. The current document does not hold us back and does nothing to keep the Palmetto State from creating an exemplary public education system.

Rex and everyone else who wants better schools should focus on lobbying the General Assembly for educational improvement and forget amending the state constitution.

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