Ease off those guys, legislatin' is hard

It's a good thing state lawmakers have decided to work over the summer on South Carolina's education funding problem.

For a minute there, it looked like we were in trouble.

On Tuesday, a study committee of House members met to try to come up with a way out of the box they've put themselves in: how to pay for the ever-increasing cost of educating children and still keep whacking the living snot out of state taxes every year.

Some people might say Houdini couldn't escape from that box, but don't underestimate the General Assembly.

Since December, this panel has been taking "testimony" — just like Congress — and this week many of them made important speeches. Now, nothing got done, but come on, Speaker Harrell gave 'em until November.

To show you how important this is, here's an interesting statistic: Education costs make up close to half the state's $7 billion annual budget, making it by far South Carolina's biggest expense.

You might wonder why, if it's such a big part of what the state does, legislators didn't focus on it during the five solid months they spent in Columbia the first part of the year.

That's a fair question, but there are many, many things lawmakers have to do while they are in session, important duties that keep them all tied up during a General Assembly. It takes weeks of committee meetings and floor votes to get all those specialty license plates approved. And then there's the staff time it takes to write up memorials to every sports team, Kiwanis Club and campaign contributor, uh, constituent who shows up.

Then they have to figure out ways to bend state law to allow their local communities to do something that's really, really important for them, like going against court orders to allow vanity towns to incorporate.

By the end of the day, there's just no time or energy left to deal with a complex funding formula few people understand, not to mention an equitable — and politically palatable — way to distribute the money. It's all they can do to make it the nightly receptions for groups like the York Association of Hibachi Owners Organization.

Besides, it's just human nature to put off the big job. Sure, schools could be more efficient, but there's more to it than that. They threw $145 million at schools this year, and that was only about a 5 percent increase. What more do you want? Just because inflation affects everyone else, it's not supposed to apply to government operations.

The problem is that there is a tough decision to be made. Unless they give in to some of their colleagues — who believe the way to save public schools is to give their money to private schools, cutting their funding even more — they are either going to have to cut funding for the Grits Festival or raise taxes. Neither is an attractive option.

So this panel plans to meet every couple of weeks for the rest of the summer and into the fall, and maybe they'll get something done. They would have done more Tuesday, but they were kind of busy filling out per diem forms.

They'll try again on Aug. 5 up at the Capitol. Give 'em a call, tell them how much you support them.

Reach Brian Hicks at 937-5561 or bhicks@postandcourier.com.