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

February 17, 2009

Myrtle Beach, S.C—More than 20,000 signatures were submitted to the Goodbye Minimally Adequate campaign during last week’s South Carolina Teacher Forum hosted by the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement.

South Carolina Teacher of the Year Jenna Hallman issued a challenge to the state’s district teachers of the year last fall as she traveled the state conducting regional meetings. The science specialist from Anderson School District Five challenged each of them to gather signatures in support of the Goodbye Minimally Adequate campaign, an awareness and advocacy program launched by award-wining producer and director Bud Ferillo. His 2005 documentary “Corridor of Shame” exposes the neglect of South Carolina’s rural schools.

The group of teachers submitted 20,473 signatures to Ferillo following his address last Thursday morning. Six kindergarten students from Myrtle Beach’s Forestbrook Elementary School delivered the stacks of petitions in two Radio Flyer wagons in a symbolic gesture to Ferillo, who was speechless as the total number of signatures flashed on the screen at the front of the room.

“These kids are our future,” Hallman said. “These children are going to be the ones who are going to make the difference. They’re going to solve the problems that we have inadvertently created.”

The potential change in the state constitution will affect the type of education our state requires each of the children to be provided. Presently, South Carolina is required to provide a “minimally adequate” education, but the goal of the campaign seeks to make a difference.

The campaign’s goal is to collect one million signatures with the intent of changing the state constitution’s expectation of the quality of education the children of South Carolina are to receive. Presently, the law says a student must be given a “minimally adequate” education. With one million signatures the goal is to establish “a high quality education, allowing every student to reach their highest potential” as our state standard for public education in our state constitution.

Including the signatures presented by the South Carolina Teacher Forum the petition has now collected approximately 55,000 signatures.

More information about the Goodbye Minimally Adequate campaign is available online at www.goodbyeminimallyadequate.com.

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