Trim school year 10 days?

COLUMBIA -- South Carolina lawmakers could shorten the state's school year by 10 days as a way to cut into the projected $1 billion budget shortfall, a move that educators say could put children's academic success at risk.

Dropping the school year from 180 to 170 days would save an estimated $200 million. Rep. Dan Cooper, a Piedmont Republican who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, said Thursday lawmakers also will consider cutting certain services for Medicaid patients, such as hospice care and some prescription drug benefits.

No decisions will be made until after the Legislature convenes in January.

Cooper's comments came after the House's budget writers received a briefing on the state's financial situation by South Carolina's chief economist Bill Gillespie. Gillespie said the state is slowly recovering from the worst budget situation since World War II. More than $2 billion has been cut from the state's budget, now $5 billion, in the last three years.

"It's safe to say that the downward free-fall has been stabilized," Gillespie said. "We have seen a little recovery since our economy hit bottom last January."

While the state has seen small gains in tax collections, those gains aren't expected to be nearly enough to offset the loss of federal stimulus funds and erase a projected $228 million deficit at the Department of Health and Human Services, among other possible agency shortfalls.

And Pete Pillow, spokesman for the state Department of Education, said balancing the budget on the back of schoolchildren is not wise, especially from an economic development standpoint.

"If I were a businessman looking to move my business, would I look at a state that just shortened its school year by 10 days?" Pillow said. He noted that the proposal goes in the opposite direction of the national discussion about lengthening the school year to make American children more competitive in a global market.

One reason the state is struggling to pay for education is the Act 388 changes to school funding approved in 2006, which provided property tax relief to homeowners and raised the statewide sales tax to help fund schools. Sales tax revenues were supposed to replace the lost property taxes, but they have not, and that has required the state to dig into its general fund for about $100 million a year.

Pillow said that shortening the school year and taking 10 days' pay from teachers, school cafeteria staff, maintenance workers and bus drivers, among others, would have a ripple effect in the economy because those people will have less money to spend, and that affects the state's tax collections. What's more, the decision would leave parents to find 10 more days of child care for their youngsters.

Charleston schools Superintendent Nancy McGinley also has concerns about the impact of a shorter school year on children.

"Over the course of the decade, expectations for teachers have increased while instructional time has decreased," she said. "By proposing additional decreases in critical instruction time, we are decreasing expectations and the likelihood of positive academic outcomes for all our students. Time in the classroom does matter. In order to properly prepare our students for the 21st Century job market and stay competitive in the global economy -- we need more instructional time, not less."

Lawmakers will evaluate the merits and consequences of shortening the school year, along with other proposals on the table. Cooper said the state also will be considering combining state agencies.

South Carolina might also decide to forego some Medicaid services not mandated by the federal government as a way to cut costs, Cooper said. The state could pay lower rates to doctors and hospitals that treat Medicaid patients and opt to cut off an assortment of services for adults on the government-run health insurance plan, such as vision, dental and chiropractic care, in addition to cutting hospice care and prescription benefits.

Jeff Stensland, director of communications for the Health and Human Services Department, said reducing those services not mandated by the federal government might be the only option.

"It's true that cutting some optional services may have long-term negative consequences, aside from the human toll of people losing services, but we have to identify short-term savings," Stensland said. "Unlike the federal government, the state is not allowed to run a year-end deficit."

Reach Yvonne Wenger at 803-926-7855.