Early this year, the House and Senate came out crackling, quickly passing a law creating a new Department of Administration that gave some agency oversight to legislators and kept intact the Budget and Control Board system of fiscal management that has endeared the state to Wall Street.

Then it was on to arguably fluffier issues, such as the ability of concealed weapons permit holders to be allowed to carry loaded guns into establishments that serve alcohol.

The Senate, usually the target of House grumbling for slow-footing it, then passed an ethics reform bill. Soon thereafter, the House approved a stripped-down “nullification” bill meant to not only sidestep Obamacare for another year, but also sidestep some of the earlier penalties for involvement embedded in earlier versions.

And now, with seven or eight full weeks of work left, several leaders in the Republican-dominated Senate are saying there’s only enough time for a short agenda.

Senate Judiciary chairman Larry Martin (R-Pickens) and Banking and Insurance chairman Wes Hayes (R-Rock Hill) said there were four or five major issues that can still get wrung out, in this order:

1. Finishing anti-Obamacare work. Sen. Tom Davis (R-Bluffton) is still pushing to fast track a measure to keep Obamacare out of South Carolina as much as possible without creating thorny legal traps, such as lost future federal research grants tied to the Affordable Care Act.
   
   
2. Texting while driving. This safety measure -- to ban texting while driving -- may come second.
   
   
3. Addressing Common Core. Almost as unpopular with many legislators as Obamacare, education curriculum accountability has always been a tough issue in a state like South Carolina that has comparatively low educational attainment.
   
   
4. The budget. The only thing on any agenda, all legislators will remind, that has to be passed every year by law is the state budget, this year topping $7 billion in state funds.  While the House passed the budget quicker than ever in recent memory (two days), this year’s Senate  fight could have some fire because of election-year politicking in the House and the desire to put more money back in for public education from the Senate, according to Hayes.

Martin said that he was working with another junior member of the Senate to see if a compromise can be worked out to trim the length of the session at both ends, bringing the total closer to 60 days met each year in the future.

While Martin and Hayes see the light at the end of the tunnel, Democratic operatives in the Senate, like caucus spokesman Phil Bailey, think the light is an oncoming train.

Bailey ticks off a litany of unaddressed issues: statewide expansion of 4K educational programs; finding a cogent way to fund the state’s almost $30 billion in repairs and maintenance for the state’s bridges and roads network; “fully” funding public K-12 education; and expanding Medicaid, which he said would have bring $11 billion to the state.

Bailey said that for all the GOP’s focus on jobs, thousands of good ones might swing in the balance if the nullification bills aren’t hashed out correctly. If a bill becomes law to make it illegal for anyone in the state to accept Affordable Care Act-related funding, such as research dollars from the National Institute of Health, it could cost the state $148 million in grants at institutions like USC, Clemson and MUSC.

“And that’s just the jobs and grants we know about,” said Bailey, who was waiting for further analysis from several state agencies as to which grants could be affected.

While the grumbling in the House over the slow-tracking Senate might not be as loud this year, thanks in part to success with the Department of Administration and ethics measures, it’s not completely muted.

With a big intra-chamber fight looming over K-12 funding levels, members there have said they are worried there won’t be enough time to even get to the short agenda if the Senate, like it often does, waits until the last second to return major bills.

Bill Davis is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report.  He can be reached at:  billdavis@statehousereport.com.

RECENT NEWS STORIES

• 3/7: New film focuses on early literacy
  
• 2/28:  Short end of the budget stick
• 2/21:  Changes may be ahead for state's marijuana laws
• 2/14:  Decrypting governor's education plan
  
• MORE NEWS: Archives

You might soon be able to walk into a Best Buy and lease a low-cost solar system, says Ann Timberlake of the Conservation Voters of South Carolina. Negotiations are underway that might kickstart an effort as early as next week to open the door to a measure to remove legal barriers in South Carolina for solar leashing.

And that was fine until one of them, Juan “Dave” Feliciano of Spartanburg, shot off his mouth that Graham was “ambiguously gay, whatever that means. Great, many think, more homophobia, despite the fact that Graham has repeatedly said he is not gay. 

What makes the whole incident even more bizarre is that former GOP State Treasurer Thomas Ravenel -- yeah, the guy who ended up in federal prison on a cocaine conviction and who is beating his chest that he may run as an independent -- is castigating Republicans for their homophobia.

In an widely-distributed email that’s an obvious ploy to get quoted to raise his profile for a possible candidacy, Southern Charm-er Ravenel said, “Rather than substantively address these issues [debt, freedom, schools, military] – GOP candidates want to make gay jokes. Frankly there is no place for this sort of juvenile homophobia in a United States Senate race – and the Republican Party should be ashamed of itself for fostering such hateful, narrow-minded views."

Education love-in leads to pesky question

Gov. Nikki Haley and several Republican members of the House fell into each others’ embrace at a Wednesday Statehouse press conference. 

They celebrated inclusion in the House budget of a Haley-led change for public K-12 education funding that could allow for increased funding to go poor school districts. The proposed change was meant to make sure rural students and those living in poor districts could receive a more equal education to those living in ritzier zip codes. The total budget package has been sent to the Senate for review.

It was all puppy dogs and giggles until one pesky reporter asked about the more than $530 million the budget didn’t fund as required in K-12 formula funding. The proposed budget again included a proviso that allowed the legislature to skirt its statutory requirement to meet proscribed per-pupil funding levels, around $2,700 per student.

Haley, having already pointed out that it was a great day in South Carolina, made the case that schools were already so good in the state that big companies – like Boeing and Michelin – had come and invested billions here. Other ticklish issues, such as reports of problems at Social Services and implementation of Common Core, were brushed aside, with the governor promising to look into them more fully.

MARCH 14, 2014 -- Almost 60 years after the Brown v. Board of Education school integration decision, a statue will be erected to honor the Charleston judge who steered the nation toward the landmark ruling.

It’s long overdue. Quite frankly, we should be embarrassed that it’s taken this long. U.S. District Judge Waties Waring’s courage and conviction in law helped to transform a segregated America into an integrated land of opportunity.

At 2 p.m. April 11 in the garden at the Hollings Judicial Center in Charleston, judges and citizens from around the state and nation will honor Waring, the unlikely Southern jurist who became the social outcast who left town for challenging segregation.

Waring was an architect of the legal path that led to the Brown v. Board decision handed down on May 17, 1954, through want has been called “the dissent that changed America.” Waring was the first federal judge directly to challenge the 1896 “separate but equal” doctrine that propped up segregation as an everyday practice in the South. He wrote June 21, 1951 in Briggs v. Elliott:

“Segregation in education can never produce equality and that it is an evil that must be eradicated. ... I am of the opinion that all of the legal guideposts, expert testimony, common sense and reason point unerringly to the conclusion that the system of segregation in education adopted and practiced in the State of South Carolina must go and must go now. Segregation is per se inequality.”

Three years later, the U.S. Supreme Court, in considering appeals of the Briggs case and four other segregation cases, delivered a unanimous verdict that “separate but equal” public schools for blacks and whites were unconstitutional.

What’s particularly interesting about Waring’s story is how his perspective broadened to challenge the segregated society in which he was raised and prospered until he became a federal judge at age 61 in 1942. Born in 1880, he had a solid but comparatively undistinguished legal career as an assistant U.S. attorney starting in 1914, followed by private practice in the 1920s. He supported the cultural order, became city attorney in 1931 and kept close ties with leading state politicians. When he was appointed to the bench, few thought he’d ever rock the boat.

But as writer Richard Kluger described in “Simple Justice,” Waring’s conversion into a moderate jurist began gradually, first with a case involving a black man detained against his will to work on a white farm. Instead of just telling the farmer to stop, Waring shocked many by sending him to jail.

Soon, Waring ended segregated seating in his courtroom. He appointed a black bailiff, virtually unheard of in the nation. Then came a case in which he ordered the state to desegregate its law school or create an equal facility for blacks.

NEW PAINTING, TOO.  Not only is there going to be a new statue featuring Waring, but Lowcountry artist Jonathan Green has painted a new work to celebrate Waring’s contributions to South Carolina.  The painting, which captures a scene during the 1951 hearing on the Briggs case, will be displayed in the courthouse and is expected to be unveiled during the April 11 ceremony. Copies of the painting are to be distributed to schools throughout the state to honor Waring’s decisions. More: WatiesWaring.org

I have just finished reading an article by Andy Brack, editor and publisher of the Statehouse Report, a man I usually do not agree with due to the difference in our politics. However, as they say down south, “even a broken clock is right twice a day.”   This is one time I am happy to agree with Mr. Brack.

The subject of Mr. Brack’s article was a new film about to be released called: “When The Bough Breaks” produced by veteran filmmaker Bud Ferillo. His earlier film, “Corridor of Shame” pointed out the abysmal conditions in poor South Carolina schools. The film shocked many in our state.

His new film takes a positive approach as it explains the importance of parents reading to their children during their infancy. The film illustrates how parents, relatives and even volunteers can supplement the professionals in preparing their children for school. This could be done during feeding time for infants and not require extra effort.

Too often it is not the teachers doing a bad job but the fact the children have not been prepared properly. Spending an hour a day reading to a child is not difficult and it should be a part of the bonding process between family members.

My family was headed by my mother who was a widow. She had four children. She took the time to read to us from an old encyclopedia of all things. She read about people, places and even poetry. When she could not read to us our older sister did. My older brother also read to me and in turn, as I was able to, I read to my little sister.

I grew up in West Virginia in the 40’s and 50’s and times were tough for everyone. The fact that we were poor did not stop us from learning. Mom saw to that. She checked homework, she helped on projects, she met with our teachers. In short, she was involved in our lives. It did not cost her a dime and it did not require outside help. All four of us became successful in life and the basis for it was the time she put in and the responsibility she taught us.

When my children and grandchildren came along, we read to them almost from day one. We often took turns reading,  and as a result, all of them were advanced readers and made good grades all through school.   We were not aware at the time that we were making a big contribution to their future learning skills.

Mr. Ferillo states: “ We’re talking about a cultural change. Now that we know a child’s brain is so incredibly active and receptive to early childhood reading and activity, it’s critical that parents, child caregivers, facilitators and reading teachers have the training an tools to provide infant children with vocabulary. A child who is read to on a consistent basis from birth to the school age will have a vocabulary of over 5,000 words while a child who is merely given toys or put in play pen will have a vocabulary of about 500 words.”

We read constantly about many of our students reading below grade level. Perhaps a major part of that reading problem can be eliminated at home with the help of the parents and the family. It is simple and it is totally free. 

The question is: How do we convince parents to begin this important job?

-- Noel Ison, Walterboro, S.C.

EDITOR’S NOTE: In a later email about the letter, Ison suggested approaching publishers to give children’s books to families in maternity wards in every hospital across the state as a going-home gift.  

Neat idea, we say. It’s kind of similar to what Begin With Books, part of the Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, is doing in Charleston County.

Equal pay. Hats off to Sen. Vincent Sheheen, D-Camden, for shining the spotlight on women’s issues, especially how women earn 78 percent of what men in comparable jobs in South Carolina. More.