SC educator suggests cutting size of General Assembly to save money, improve service

It is time to discuss amending the state’s constitution to reduce the number of representatives in the lower chamber of the General Assembly.

Why now?

During this time of redistricting, members of the General Assembly are having private meetings and parties veneered with a thin layer of public input to give legitimacy to gerrymandering schemes to save their seats.

Reduce the number of representatives in the lower chamber of the General Assembly from 124 to say 62 members.

Look at our neighboring states. North Carolina has a population of 10.38 million people with a lower chamber of only 120 members; Georgia has a population of 10.52 million people with a lower chamber of 180 members.

South Carolina has a population of only 5.1 million people with a lower chamber of 124 members. Sixty-two members in the lower chamber of the General Assembly is about the right ratio.

Our neighbors have twice as many residents than South Carolina, and their vital statistics are much more favorable than South Carolina’s in the sectors of public safety, health care, and public education- government’s primary functions.

Why does South Carolina need 124 members in its lower chamber?

We can reduce the cost of running state government and have a much more efficient government by reducing the number of members in the General Assembly by consolidating house districts throughout the State.

Each representative would represent approximately 83,000 residents.

This number is reasonable, as the representatives in the General Assembly do not reflect the will of the people and many representatives take the path of least resistance when making decisions that will protect home rule, local control, and self-representation as it relates to school boards of trustees. Particularly, in areas of our state where the State is complicity in victimizing the citizens.

A smaller number in the lower chamber of the General Assembly would be much more efficient in their deliberations.

The cost of paying representatives their salaries and living expenses when serving in the General Assembly and on committees would be greatly reduced.

The discretionary, pork barrel spending would be better rationed out by fewer representatives.

The primary budgetary item, public education, would be better managed.

Why have 124 representatives influencing the budget of one of the worst public-school systems in the nation? Sixty-two would do fine.

In fact, the public-schools in our urban centers and the so-call “Corridor of Shame” would be much better off without many of the representatives who currently represent those areas.

Finally, 62 house members would have 62 fewer members to duck and dodge behind. They could get about the business of undoing the miseducation of the masses that has been manufactured by the state since the 1895 state constitution was adopted.

The deliberate miseducation of students of American enslaved descent, and working-class whites, to maintain the socioeconomic status quo.

Will the General Assembly have the courage to take this matter up over their personal interest? Put the question to the people.

It would be efficacious to have the General Assembly finally do something as meaningful as consolidating house districts.

Reducing their numbers in the lower chamber to become more efficient in serving the people and in doing their primary job- improving the ways and means to ensure the people’s children have a brighter future in the Palmetto State.

One can only hope for such a bright future for the state I love.

Dr. Gary L. Burgess, Sr., a former candidate for SC Superintendent of Education, is Secretary of the Anderson County Board of Education and Spokesperson for the Florence County School District Four Board of Trustees.