What SC lawmakers did for rural students

It’s been three years since the S.C. Supreme Court ordered lawmakers to improve the state’s poor, rural school districts, arguing that decades of neglect had prevented students in those schools from getting a decent education.

So what did lawmakers do this year for the state’s public schools?

▪ School need a new roof? Both the House and Senate added money to the state budget for public school building maintenance and repairs. The House added $100 million, while the Senate added $46 million. Now, a House-Senate budget conference committee must decide on which spending proposal to adopt.

A more ambitious bill – allowing the state to borrow more than $100 million a year to help schools renovate existing facilities or build new ones – stalled in the Senate for the second year in a row.

▪ Tech money cut. Gov. Nikki Haley had not been out of the state long when legislative budget writers cuts one of her signature education programs.

At Haley’s urging, the state sent close to $30 million to school districts to buy more computers and tablets, and to improve internet connectivity for three years. But that spending was cut to $12 million for the budget year starting July 1.

▪ Spending per kid still falls short. The House and Senate also disagree over how much state money school systems should get for every student they educate. The House proposes $2,400; the Senate proposes $2,435.

While up from $2,350 this year, the proposed increases are more modest than last spring, when the cost per student went up by $130.

Regardless of which number lawmakers settle on, state spending will fall short of the $2,984 per student recommended by law.

McMaster goes to Washington

S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster went to the White House Wednesday to meet briefly with President Donald Trump.

The Buzz asked what the two discussed and was told the meeting was private.

McMaster also met with White House staff, including federal budget director Mick Mulvaney, South Carolina’s former 5th District congressman.

McMaster’s chief goal was to discuss the $180 million he says Congress owes the state to fulfill plans to deepen Charleston Harbor to 52 feet so it can handle larger ships.

In February, the governor asked Trump to ensure that federal money was set aside for the port. The request was part of a larger request, asking Trump to include $5 billion in money for S.C. roads and bridges in the infrastructure plan that the Republican pitched while campaigning for president.

The Trump administration has not responded to that request, a McMaster spokesman said Friday. Trump has yet to introduce his infrastructure plan in Congress.

McMaster’s missing three votes

The governor told The Buzz recently that a veto was the toughest stand he could take against a gas tax increase, which legislators passed into law over his veto.

“You cannot get any stronger than a veto,” the Richland Republican said.

McMaster is wrong, gas tax opponents say, railing against the governor for not doing more to derail the tax hike.

Accusing McMaster of “fake opposition” to the gas tax, activists planned to flood the governor’s office with phone calls of protest.

In response, McMaster spokesman Brian Symmes said the governor “made himself clear,” citing his veto message and appeal directly to voters on his Facebook page. “He wanted that veto to be sustained, and it was a priority of his.”

However, state Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, accused McMaster of logging in a “drive-by veto,” moving too swiftly to veto the gas tax hike. Anti-gas tax activists wanted McMaster to wait before issuing his veto, using the full five days that he is allowed before he must act. That added time would have given opponents more time to persuade lawmakers to uphold McMaster’s veto, gas tax opponents say.

Davis said he was making progress in persuading lawmakers to sustain a veto when McMaster’s pen struck. And, he added, the governor only needed the support of three more senators to win the veto battle.

Buzz bite

Mulvaney will return to South Carolina soon.

The former S.C. legislator and 5th District congressman, who resigned from Congress to join President Trump’s administration, will speak at the May 27 graduation of the S.C. Governor’s School for Math and Science in Hartsville.

Two of the Indian Land Republican’s children attended the school.