Know the Facts on Education in South Carolina

 The "Begin in '10" plan marks the culmination of two years of work by two task forces appointed by State  Superintendent of Education Jim Rex to make recommendations about reforming and improving the three-decades-old way we fund our public schools and raise  resources to meet the state's priorities, including  education.  So what are the key elements of this plan?

 

1. Paves the  way for a new  Foundation Program to ensure that every student receives a high  quality education and that our schools are turning out Twenty-first Century Graduates.
2. Realigns dozens of individual line items in the budget and creates a new  Student-centered Funding System that ensures that districts and the schools have the flexibility to use resources in ways that best meet the needs of the students in their communities.  
3. Puts in place a weighting for poverty, because we know that it costs more to educate students who come from impoverished backgrounds.  
4. Paves the way for raising teacher salaries through a 21^st Century Foundation program and reforms the outdated system currently in place that is not adequate for the Twenty-first Century.

5. Extends full-day four-year-old kindergarten to all at-risk students.
6. Provides grants to districts for innovative practices that get results.
7. Creates a Commission to reinvent South Carolina's tax structure.
8. Establishes a  statewide uniform foundation millage rate to ensure stable local support for public schools..

  

Q:  Why does South Carolina need this plan?

A:  South Carolina needs a funding system that is adequate, efficient, transparent, secure, and sustainable for the future.  This plan puts the foundation of this plan in place in 2010 and sets the stage for comprehensive reform over the next few years. 

 

Q:  How can South Carolina afford to do this in this time of economic crisis?

A:  It's South Carolina's well intended but outdated education funding system and tax structure that have, in part, created this budget crisis in the first place.  Yes, we need to address immediate needs, but we can't lose sight of where we need to go as a state.  Comprehensive tax and funding reform is the only thing that gets us there and ensures that South Carolina's public schools are graduating students who are prepared for the Twenty-first Century workplace. 

 

Q:  So what do I need to ask policy makers to do?

A:  First, in order to address the current budget crisis, the legislature must give flexibility to districts to decide how to spend money to best help kids.  Second, in order to maintain the viability of our public schools, they must restore the cuts that have been made when they design the 2010 budget.  Finally, they must pass the "Begin in '10" plan to put in place a comprehensive system for ensuring fair and adequate funding for the future and 21^st Century graduates. .

 

Funding Reform

2009 Legislative Session

Recommendations

 

 

I.    Index of Taxpaying Ability (ITA): Since this calculation no longer is a true indication of what a district's taxpaying ability is (Act 388 sales tax swap on owner occupied homes), replace it with an Index of Support.  This new index would be the calculation used to determine a district's local Education Finance Act (EFA) share and would include the imputed value of owner occupied residential property.

II.  Statewide Uniform Foundation Millage: Require that a statewide uniform foundation millage be instituted in 2011 to replace the Index of Support.  This uniform millage would be determined annually based on the total taxable property in the state and each county would be required to levee a uniform amount.  This millage would be imposed, collected and used by the county to satisfy the district's EFA match.  

III.  Fee-in-lieu-of Agreements: Upon enactment of the statewide uniform foundation millage, all fee-in-lieu-of agreements should be required to, at a minimum, be equivalent to the annually established statewide uniform foundation millage rate required for school operations.

IV.  Pupil Weightings: Add a "Pupils in Poverty" weighting of 0.20 (to be funded to the extent possible with realigned funds); an "Academically and Artistically Advanced" weighting of 0.25 (to be funded to the extent possible with realigned funds); and a "Limited English Proficiency" weighting of 0.60 (not to exceed three years). 

V.  Realign General Fund and EIA Line Items: Realign a total of 41 lines in the Appropriation's Act (8 in the General Fund and 33 in the EIA) and hold districts harmless at the 2010 level of funding.  General Fund realignments should be either added to the base student cost (BSC) or grouped under the categories of adult education and career education.  EIA realignments should be grouped under the categories of academic and artistically advanced, adult education, career education, teacher salaries, pupils in poverty, professional development, innovation, reading, and Education Oversight Committee.

VI.  Innovation Grant Fund: Create the Public School Innovation Grant Program using realigned funds for the purpose of providing grants to school districts for a period of three to five years.  The grants would be awarded to provide support to districts, schools, and communities for implementing innovative measures to address their needs.  

VII.  21stCentury Foundation Program: Require the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) to determine the education components of a 21^st Century Foundation Program and the cost of each component.  In addition require SCDE to conduct an assessmentof the appropriateness of the weights currently contained in the EFA.  Require SCDE to report its finds along with relevant data. 

VIII.  Financial Technical Assistance: Require the SCDE to provide training and assistance to school districts on best financial practices and provide them the authority to intervene with fiscal management teams when districts are experiencing fiscal difficulties.

IX.  Act 388: Modify Act 388 so that the tier three reimbursement inflation factor is the same as the inflation factor used to inflate the BSC (wages of public school employees in the Southeast).  Separate the reimbursement increases into two pots: those due to inflation and those due to population increases.  Specify the increases attributable to population increases be distributed using a district's increase in weighted pupil units from the prior year calculated as a proportion of the total increase in statewide weighted pupil units of those districts experiencing growth.  Hold districts harmless when moving to the new calculation.

X.  Early Childhood Education/Four-Year-Old Kindergarten: Codify the Child Development Education Pilot Program (CDEPP) and extend the program, as funds become available, to all at-risk four-year-old children.  Identify a suitable and stable funding stream to insure all at-risk children receive adequate early childhood education.

XI.  Taxation Realignment Commission: Create a commission to conduct a detailed, comprehensive, and careful study of the state's tax structure to make recommendations on an adequate, equitable, and efficient state revenue structure with the goal of maintaining and enhancing South Carolina as an optimum competitor in attracting businesses and individuals to locate, live, work, and invest in this State.