Adjusting S.C.’s Tax Structure Could Return Funding to Schools

April 20, 2010

After getting an earful from hundreds of teachers, students and parents worried about state education funding, some state legislators who attended the rally said they would consider changes to Act 388 to return funding to schools.

State Reps. Karl Allen, Bruce Bannister and Rex Rice attended the rally hosted by the Alliance for Quality Education at Clemson University’s International Center for Automotive Research and listened as first a parent, then a teacher, a student and a principal addressed the crowd, each to frequent applause and chants of, “Enough is enough.”
Allen said it was important for legislators to know the will of the people. He agreed that the state needs to chart a new course, perhaps by eliminating some tax exemptions or by tweaking Act 388 so that school funding doesn’t rely as heavily on “volatile” sales tax revenue.
Rep. Bill Wylie of Greenville, he held out what he called “slim” hope that cuts won’t be made in this year’s budget. The state needs a long-term education funding plan, he said, and possible changes to Act 388, which changed the state’s tax structure, could return funding to schools in coming years.
While any cut to education hurts, “Education funding faces only a 7 percent cut,” Wylie said. “Some agencies have been cut by 40 percent or more.”
Greenville County public schools face a $30 million cut in their 2010-2011 budget. That is $75 slashed for every student, and that is on top of $42 million already cut in the past two years.
A budget proposal before the state Legislature would cut education funding statewide another $85 million or 6 percent, returning funding to 1995 levels of $1,630 per student.
Some say one solution is for the Legislature to revoke some of the more than $2.8 billion in state sales tax exemptions. Greenville and Pickens sch ool boards have adopted a resolution pushing that alternative.
Wendy Hook held a sign printed on a single blue sheet of 8.5-by-11 paper taped to a yellow ruler that read “enough is enough.”
She came from school and carted her two daughters, one a kindergarten student, to a rally filled with hundreds of teachers, students, parents and school administrators Monday in Greenville because she is worried about the future education of her daughter and her students.
She sees the effects of budget cuts every day in her classroom. Class sizes are growing; supplies are shrinking.
“We can’t buy paper. We can’t buy supplies,” Hook said. “We have parents bringing us scraps of paper from home just so the kids will have something to write on. These are kindergartners. They need these tools to learn.”
Hook has had enough. That is why she pushed a stroller and fed her children juice boxes and chips to attend a rally
Teachers are fighting for funding to keep science labs open and staffed, to replace books and to keep class sizes small enough that students who raise their hand in class don’t forget why by the time the teacher gets around to calling on them.
Some teachers are fighting for their jobs. They all wanted to tell the state’s legislators what they need.
Kelly Nalley, a Spanish teacher at Fork Shoals School and Greenville County’s teacher of the year, told the crowd the state needs a new plan for public education. Economic downturns aren’t a time to make blanket cuts, she said, but “a time to refocus” on what is important.
Holly Wilkes, who teaches Spanish at Sara Collins, feared that her position might be cut. She hopes rallies will catch the Legislature’s ear in time to make a difference this year.
“We hope so,” Wilkes said. “That’s why we’re here.”