State public four- and two-year colleges are wincing from a de facto budget cut in the proposed package, as the amount the House has set aside for them is the same as it was in the current fiscal year budget.

It’s considered by some as a cut, since the line item amount does not reflect inflation, growth in costs, or an overall growth of the state’s total and General Fund budgets, which grew by billions and hundreds of millions, respectively, over the current fiscal year.

In the current 2013-14 state budget, colleges and universities received a base budget of $336 million, while technical colleges got $106 million and the S.C. Area Health Education Consortium received $9.6 million, according to Julie Carullo of the state Commission on Higher Education.

Over the preceding seven budget years, according to state financial records, two- and four-year public colleges have seen their line items reduced by cumulative 37 percent.   In 2009-10, for example, colleges and universities had $402 million in appropriated state funds, which dropped to $318.2 million the next year and now is at $336.2 million.  For technical colleges, the current year funding of $105.7 million has almost returned to the 2009-10 level of $113.5 million.  [See this chart for FY10 to FY14 numbers.]

According to Kelly Steinhilper, spokesman for the S.C. Technical College System, a three-part series of cuts dating back to the beginnings of the Great Recession removed close to 48 percent of direct state support for the tech school system.

Steinhilper said that some of that loss in funding was mitigated by the increase in enrollment technical schools enjoyed during down financial times when workers, some on unemployment, lined up for job training courses.

“They want the product, it’s what we do – providing real skills and workforce training,” she said, pointing to an 83 percent placement rate of students hired into jobs related to the training they received at tech schools.

At the traditional colleges and universities, according to one lobbyist, big research schools are succeeding “in spite of the General Assembly.”

That lobbyist said that one of the saving graces for USC and Clemson was the interest and revenue that their currently successful football programs engender.

Additionally, the lobbyist said, that if “Charleston” were not such a big draw or “brand” in marketing parlance, then the College of Charleston and The Citadel might not be doing as well as they are.

Another higher-education lobbyist complained that despite the flat-lining of budget amounts, tech schools are coming out better than their institutions due to workforce preparedness spending by the state.

Sources in the Senate said there was a good chance that some money would be added back to the higher education line items, but the magnitude wasn’t known.

Suspicious minds

State Rep. Brian White (R-Anderson), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee that takes the first crack at the state budget, is not seen by many as a big fan of higher education.

With a solitary year of college at Erskine under his belt, White has for the second year pelted higher education budget requests with sharp questions during budget hearings.

In a March 2 story in The Chronicle of Higher Education, White is quoted as saying that two-and four-year schools are doing a better job at taking care of their expansion needs than they are taking care of their mandate: maintenance of existing buildings and providing a quality education to students. 

“I’m not crazy,” said White. “We’re doing something right in higher education in South Carolina, otherwise why are the BMWs, the Boeings, and all the other heavy-hitters coming here to South Carolina?”

The House’s suspicions of higher education, according to five budget watchers, can be seen in how it handled its annual capital reserve fund, which represents 2 percent of the previous year’s General Fund tax collections.

In the 2014-15 House budget package, that fund was worth more than $117 million. Historically, the lion’s share of the fund -- up to about half -- has gone to higher education. But in the budget proposal sent to the Senate, the House set aside less than 10 percent -- only $10 million. Of that amount, $5 million is slated for anaerospace training center at Trident Tech in North Charleston.

Indirect help to tech schools

Projects like the Boeing-related center and other tech school-based workforce preparedness efforts, such as readySC, funnel more state funding to tech schools that doesn’t directly add to the tech system’s bottom line.

That indirect push appears to be in line with state Commerce Secretary Bobby Hitt’s claim that the best way to rebuild the state’s economy is through manufacturing jobs.

The value of higher education

Students getting retrained for less then $10,000 at a tech school and landing a good-paying job is good for the state. If the job pays $40,000, that’s a good return on investment, according state Rep. Phil Owens (R-Easley), chair of the House Education Committee.

But is it the best way over the long term, some ask? Consider a nugget embedded on Clemson’s website, quoting a national watchdog group, that says a Clemson graduate will earn $872,000 more over their lifetime than someone who doesn’t seek a degree at all.

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

RECENT NEWS STORIES

• 3/21: Legislature tackles flurry of abortion bills
• 3/14: Legislative attention turns to Senate
  
• 3/7: New film focuses on early literacy
  
• 2/28:  Short end of the budget stick
• MORE NEWS: Archives

The Senate will take up a measure by Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler called “reading to succeed.” In the House, legislators may take up contested measures on changing divorce rules, allow liquor sales on election days and more.   Important committee meetings next week include:

• Trustee elections. Members of the House and Senate will meet in joint session at noon April 2 to elect members to various college and university boards of trustees.
  
  
• Senate Education. The K-12 subcommittee will meet 8:30 a.m. on April 3 in 209 Gressette to discuss several bills, including teacher employment, dismissals and evaluations. Agenda.
  
  
• Senate General. The committee will meet 9 a.m. April 3 in 307 Gressette to discuss H. 4300, a bill on a performance audit of the state Department of Social Services.  

• All Senate meetings

• All House meetings

While there are five (or more?) challengers running against U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham for reelection and former Attorney General Henry McMaster surprised some by filing to run in the GOP primary for lieutenant governor (which he ran for in 1990 too), don’t be too surprised if there is at least one unmentioned candidate to file by Monday to run statewide. It’s going to be a long campaign season.

The House and Senate both appear to be in slow-down mode two weeks out from furloughs and with back room work being done in the Senate on the budget. Little steams seems to be left to propel the House ethics reform package after the Senate tacked on 73 amendments, and an ad hoc committee had to be formed in the House to consider them, which may, because of time, kill the measure deader than a dodo.

"Emma’s Law" blows toward looser levels

The hottest topic on the House floor agenda next week may be changes made to a bill nicknamed “Emma’s Law.” The bill would crack down on first-time DUI offenders by requiring an ignition interlock system be attached to their vehicle and requiring them to blow into a blood-alcohol sensing monitor before being allowed to start their car.

Initially, the bill called for the interlock system to be installed for all violators caught with a 0.08 or higher blood-alcohol level. One legislator pushed in committee this week to push that amount to 0.15, as there were already existing 0.08-related punishments, and it could confuse the situation. His push was successful, as the Judiciary Committee on Tuesday included that change, which is expected to draw the most attention in floor debate, as critics contend the level is too high.

At the federal level, think about the Interstate system (Eisenhower), envisioning putting a man on the moon and all the cool stuff that came from that (Kennedy), civil rights legislation (Johnson), Medicare and Medicaid (Johnson), expanding freedom (Reagan) and, regardless of what you think of it, the Affordable Care Act (Obama).

At the state level, past leaders created the technical college system, educational television, boosted manufacturing, raised taxes for better education and built lots of roads -- so many that we now have a hard time maintaining them.

But as is frequent in politics, it’s normal to ask, “What have you done for me, lately?”

The blatantly obvious answer is, “Not much.”

Sure, it’s good the legislature passes budgets and keeps most of the state’s agencies running. It’s great the state Senate is looking into the big mess at the state Department of Social Services. It’s certainly helpful for the state Department of Commerce to lure more jobs here.

But that’s what they’re supposed to do. What about thinking big to do things to really impact South Carolinians, one of five of whom are on food stamps? 

When we posed this question a week or so ago to a group of people trying to better understand what was going on in the state, the best answer we got was that lawmakers in the last 25 years had gotten rid of miscegenation -- the law that made it illegal for people of different races to marry.

Really? That’s it? Sure, some of the folks in the group weren’t from South Carolina, but it’s pretty pitiful if 35 smart people can’t come up with more than that. That is not a reflection on them, but it is telling in so many ways.

What it should highlight is just how little actually gets accomplished by legislators that is really meaningful for most South Carolinians. 

Over the last 25 years, two highlights are the state lottery, which has generated $3.4 billion for  education since 2002, and the Transportation Infrastructure Bank, which currently funds $549 million in highway projects. 

One cynic, however, pointed out that both are responses to a failing political structure. The legislature wouldn’t pay more for higher education with tax dollars, so they let residents -- many of them poor -- gamble away their few dollars in hopes of winning and, in turn, helping to pay for college for mostly white middle-class kids. Similarly, state legislators couldn’t keep their fingers out of the transportation pot for pet roads, so they had to create another agency that could get things done that really needed to be done.

In the last 25 years, legislators also created the state Conservation Bank to protect property, but they have to argue every year whether to give it a few million to protect special places. They’ve done sentencing reform, which is slowly dropping the prison population by lowering numbers of non-violent prisoners in jail. Legislative funding helped to cut the teen pregnancy rate in half. And lawmakers funded pro-business measures that most people don’t recall readily.

But this is also the state that turned the tax structure on its head with the Act 388 tax swap that replaced some property taxes with higher sales taxes, which put a larger burden on the poor and middle class. Legislators also took the Confederate flag off the Statehouse dome, only to put it in a more conspicuous place in front of the Statehouse.

One wag notes, “Maybe the story is nothing has been accomplished!” over the last 25 years.  Another bitterly skewers our leaders, “That bunch in Columbia is such a bunch of lightweights, they wouldn't even leave footprints in the newly-driven snow.”

On balance for 25 years, is this a record for us to break out the champagne? Lots of South Carolinians are still poor, hungry and uneducated. Makes you wonder why those legislators meet so long and so often in Columbia. How about if they just stay home next year?

Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report.  You can reach Brack at: brack@statehousereport.com.

• 3/21: Beware of invasion of political robocalls
• 3/14:  Waring statue is long overdue
• 3/7: "Minimally adequate" isn't good enough
  
• 2/28:  The dumbing down of American democracy
• MORE BRACK:  See our archives

By S.C. Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter

MARCH 28, 2014 -- What I want to know is, why are the employees at the Forestry Commission or law enforcement so much different from the 40,000 employees at other agencies that provide critical and essential services to South Carolina’s 4.7 million citizens?

S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley released her $6.6 billion proposed budget in January. Firefighters with the State Forestry Commission would receive a pay increase under Haley’s plan. The governor said they should get a 2 percent raise because they were left out of the last round, specifically designated for law enforcement personnel.

Keep in mind, in 1990, South Carolina had 80,000 state employees providing services to 3.5 million citizens. If the rationale is safety or life endangerment then it is clear we have many more state employees who put their lives on the line every day.

For example, just recently a S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control employee working alone in Dillon County was viciously attacked by two pit bulls. The employee was attacked while investigating a complaint and remains hospitalized after coming out of a medically induced coma for a week.

Or what about the S.C. Department of Social Services case workers who handle the highest case loads in the nation and routinely visit some of the toughest areas in communities across the state? The national average is 280 cases per social worker. South Carolina social workers handle an average of 1,001 child-support cases. Don’t they deserve to be paid fairly?

Or what about the S.C. Department of Transportation employees who worked around the clock in order to keep South Carolina’s roads and thoroughfares accessible during the recent snow and ice storm? A storm so severe it necessitated the declaration of a state of emergency, forcing the governor to request federal assistance.

The governor has only recommended pay increases for law enforcement and forestry; however, the governor is clearly willing to make competitive pay a priority when it comes to her immediate staff.

In 2011, newly inaugurated Gov. Haley increased her chief of staff’s salary by almost 30 percent to $125,000. Haley’s top lawyer was paid $102,000, almost 40 percent more than Gov. Mark Sanford’s top lawyer, who was paid $75,000.

In 2012, Haley again handed out pay increases to her staff, awarding her deputy chief of staff an additional pay raise of $12,000, press secretary $7,000, budget manager $5,000 and legislative liaison $5,000.

I so enjoyed this article. It is exciting to know that the legal profession appreciates the courage and passion for justice of Judge Waring and its impact on us all! I became familiar with Judge Waring in working on my dissertation years ago  and  have subsequently worked to improve student knowledge and understanding on our state’s own civil rights story and its role in the larger picture of American history.

I also thought that you might like to know that S.C.’s social studies standards and support documents also stress the contributions of Judge Waring and were recently ranked “best in the nation” with a top score of 97 percent (only 3 As) in the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance report entitled Teaching the Movement 2014: The State of Civil Rights Education in the United States. The report evaluated “how well each states' standards and resources address the civil rights movement. A majority of the states received a “D” or an "F" on the importance they placed on teaching about the movement. Twenty states received grades of “F,” including five – Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Oregon and Wyoming – that neither cover the movement in their state standards nor provide resources to teach it.

The report compared the requirements in state standards to a body of knowledge that reflects what civil rights historians and educators consider core information about the movement, and explored the additional support and resources that states provide to teachers. It encourages states to take a comprehensive approach to civil rights education with their K-12 history and social studies standards.”

-- Leslie Wallace Skinner, Ph.D., NBCT, Columbia, S.C.

Also enjoyed column on Waring

To the editor:

Wonderful article on the statue honoring Waties Waring. I read it on the 'Like the Dew' website.

I am a lifelong Georgian and in my experience, there aren't that many people with this level of courage -- and sadly it seems even less so today. I am very disappointed with the lack of progress that's been made in the Southeast U.S. regarding racial justice.

I have always wanted to read more about these courageous Southern judges who, in spite of the difficulties, did the right thing.

-- Allen Smith, Cumming, Ga.

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Unemployment rate. Woo-wee ... the state’s unemployment rate is below 6 percent for the first time since 2008. Maybe this will be the kick that boosts small businesses into spending more.