COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – The Legislature will officially ask the state Supreme Court to withdraw its timeline for fixing South Carolina’s public education system, though the high court’s answer may mean little. Legislative leaders insist the General Assembly will follow its own path, regardless.
The chambers’ leaders call the high court’s Feb. 1 deadline for issuing a plan both impossible and arbitrary.
House Speaker Jay Lucas says the Sept. 24 court order is “extremely misguided.”
The Legislature has until Monday to appeal. While that will be an official court filing, Lucas and the Senate’s leader, Hugh Leatherman, have already railed against the timeline in a hand-delivered letter to the chief justice.
The court’s timeline followed its ruling last fall that the state fails to provide students in poor, rural districts the opportunity to succeed.
