SC court rules state failed to provide adequate education at some schools

Aljazeera

South Carolina has failed to provide adequate resources for students at public schools in impoverished rural school districts, the state’s Supreme Court has ruled, bringing to a close a legal fight between the state and its educators that has languished for more than 20 years.

The high court, in a 3-2 vote announced Wednesday, calls for the state to overhaul its public school system and improve educational resources in the “Corridor of Shame” — the nickname for the rural, impoverished school districts along Interstate 95 with dilapidated and poorly performing schools. The students at the schools are mostly African-American. The decision, however, stops short of recommending just how lawmakers should improve the school system — a detail some observers say will create a daunting burden for a General Assembly criticized by many as hostile to reform.

In 1993, 36 of the state’s poorest rural school districts sued South Carolina for failing to provide “a minimally adequate education” for its students. The case — Abbeville County School District vs. the State of South Carolina — is the longest trial in the state’s history. It has appeared before the state’s Supreme Court twice, with two rounds of oral arguments.