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"Minimally adequate" schools in South Carolina have been set up for failure. To achieve this status, underperforming schools in rural areas of our state would have to pass the minimum standards set by the state and federal governments. While these schools are struggling in lean economic times, the South Carolina legislature and the Bush Administration have imposed stringent standards that these schools cannot ever hope to meet under current conditions.
South Carolina has worked under the guidelines of President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" policy to implement required standards for all schools. This policy comes with the demand that every child who attends public school achieve at a "proficient" level as determined by their performance on standardized tests. Each school must demonstrate "adequate yearly progress" by continually improving their test scores toward the lofty goal of 100% proficiency for every student by the year 2014. Failing to make "adequate yearly progress" two years in a row carries with it repercussions. It is anticipated that between 80-85% of South Carolina schools will not demonstrate "adequate yearly progress" this year.
This unfunded mandate asks schools that are already underperforming to miraculously turn around test scores without providing the resources to accomplish this task. Schools are expected to do more with less, and that is especially true of rural schools who struggle to maintain their faculty and facilities in addition to providing the level of academics to which each student is entitled. Our governor has already stated he believes the state spends enough on education, so additional funding is unlikely.
Ironically, a decade old lawsuit challenging how rural schools are funded has finally made it to a Manning courtroom. These are the very schools that will struggle to meet the newly imposed demands of "No Child Left Behind." And many of the school districts involved in the lawsuit fall along the I-95 corridor that bisects my Congressional district.
Among the districts presenting testimony in the trial are Florence 4, Lee, Marion 7 and Orangeburg 3, which all received Below Average ratings from the State Department of Education last year. The best performance by any of these schools on PACT testing last year - the test in which they will have to perform at 100% proficiency by 2014 -- was 15.5% proficiency and above in English and 13.1% proficiency and above in Math in Orangeburg District 3. These scores are a reflection of many factors. Among them are teacher pay and experience, poverty level of students, and access to up-to-date facilities and technology. These factors will not change until the attitude of our state officials change.
Rural communities have been neglected for so long and the qualities of schools there are a mere reflection of that fact. Schools can't attract quality teachers unless they can offer them competitive pay and decent quality of life. Companies won't locate in communities where the quality of life and schools are substandard. The remaining residents of these communities are those who are unable to leave or those who enjoy a higher standard of living than their neighbors and can afford private schools.
Without a commitment and investment by the state to improve our rural communities, there is little hope for improving our rural schools. Failure for schools to meet the federal standard of 100% proficiency by 2014 should be indicative that our state has failed in its mission to provide a "minimally adequate" education for those students. President Bush promoted "No Child Left Behind" saying that we should have equal expectations for all students. These expectations can never be met under the current conditions in South Carolina schools. It is time to acknowledge that, and begin to change the way rural schools are supported if we ever hope to help them overcome their inevitable failure.
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U.S. Congressman 
