By Greg Oliver (Contact / Staff Bio)
April 26, 2008 - 12:00 a.m. EST

WALHALLA — Count Oconee County School Superintendent Mike Lucas among the supporters for a constitutional change requiring South Carolina children to receive “a high quality education.”

“I really believe that all children should have access to a high quality instructional program,” Lucas said Friday.

State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex on Thursday signed his name to a petition urging a change in the state constitution that would replace South Carolina’s current state standard of “a minimally adequate education” to “a high quality education.”

In order to put the constitutional amendment on the general election ballot for November 2010, the Senate and House of Representatives would have to each endorse the statewide referendum by a two-thirds vote.

Lucas said “minimally adequate” was a term used in the 1895 state constitution.

“A minimally adequate education may have been sufficient in the context of those times,” he said. “But today’s world requires a student who can do so much more.

“Our future is dependent upon our success in educating children at a higher level. Our students are competing with children from across the world for the jobs of the future.”

Rex said, at one time or another, 48 of the 50 state constitutions throughout the country simply required free schools, rather than good schools. But the state superintendent added that those states, states that are now competing with South Carolina for high-skilled and high-paying jobs, have decided to raise the bar for themselves.

“The time has come for South Carolina to join those states,” Rex said.

In 1993, 37 South Carolina school districts filed a lawsuit against the state because they said their modest property tax bases made it impossible for them to generate funding levels enjoyed by more affluent districts. Although that suit was dismissed in 1996, the school districts appealed to the South Carolina Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court later ruled that the state had an obligation to provide, at the very least, a “minimally adequate education.” The majority opinion said that the state’s public school system should produce students who could at least read, write, and do basic math calculations. The high court then returned the case to Circuit Court Judge Thomas Cooper.

In 2005, following a 103-day trial, the longest in state history, Judge Cooper ruled that the state did not provide “a minimally adequate education” in early childhood education. Otherwise, the judge said the state’s public school system met the Supreme Court standard.

The judge eventually dismissed motions by the plaintiff districts to reconsider the decision. However, those districts, now consisting of 36, following the consolidation of two districts, are appealing to the South Carolina Supreme Court.

Though realizing that the petition represents a symbolic gesture, Rex said it is an important one nonetheless.

“It’s a way for South Carolinians to express their aspirations for something better — and to send that message to the General Assembly,” he said.