It has been a tough year for education in South Carolina. Granted, South Carolinians and Americans in general are having a rough ride economically.

However, with the school year closing at nearly the same time as the fiscal year, people are noting more the wins and losses of a school from its profit and loss financial statements than from its athletic scores or academic report cards.

The Barnwell 45 school district is having a rougher ride than its neighboring districts as it faces a budgetary shortfall of funds for fiscal year 2009 of more than $1 million. The depletion of funds means the district is having to curtail all but the most necessary purchase of supplies. Professional training and other expenses are being cut back as well.

These stopgap measures aren't just being considered or exercised in Barnwell County alone.

In the Statehouse, the Senate and the House of Representatives have approved a joint resolution allowing local school districts more flexibility in its use of state education money to cover education expenses in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 fiscal years.

The resolution would allow local school districts to delay the date that teacher contracts are issued (usually in April) and to negotiate the salaries of retired teachers (or those in the TERI program) at levels below the minimum state requirements for instructors. The resolution would also give districts the option to suspend certain professional staffing ratios and formative assessments.

These are tough measures - much like the crew of a foundering ship would toss equipment overboard to keep the vessel afloat.

Perhaps South Carolina should accord its school districts another action option, one that may not be as drastic.

For years districts have had to foot the bill on state-mandated positions - ones demanded by the state, but not funded by them.
It seems unfair for a local school district, which has less resources than the entire state, is saddled with maintaining a job position without any aid from the authority requiring it.

It's a complaint that has been echoed in school board meetings around the state, as well as in Barnwell, Williston and Blackville.

Perhaps the state education department could place a moratorium on such mandated positions, or at least make them optional until the economy rises again. Districts that comply with the optional "requested" position could in turn receive some tax incentive or other similar benefit for working toward the wishes of the state.

If South Carolina, either through the authority of its General Assembly or the state education department, is going to mandate what positions a district should have, then it should be willing to pay for them as well. If not, then the state should give the districts the financial flexibility to better manage their money so that they could possibly fund such state-desired job positions.

Such a course of action would not only be more fiscally sound for local school districts, it would also a more equitable and fair treatment to them by the state.