Collins: SC Legislature needs to fund schools and courts

Those of us in South Carolina who vote have a demonstrated preference for very conservative candidates. As one of my friends in the Legislature told me, “If someone introduces a bill to make jaywalking a capital offense in this state, I would be hard-pressed to oppose it, as some political opponent would accuse me of being soft on crime.” This sort of thinking has led to over-criminalization of offenses and mandatory minimum sentences that are very unpopular among our state Circuit Court judges.

Another trait of our Legislature is a preference for reducing the size and scope of state agencies. While fiscal conservatism is admirable, our legislators need to remember the indispensable role of government in improving the lives of our citizens.

The school funding case known as Abbeville School District v. The State of South Carolina, bravely brought and prosecuted by attorneys Carl Epps, Steve Morrison, Scott Moise and Rachel Headly, resulted in a landmark opinion by our Supreme Court in favor of our school districts. The court said the state’s argument that this was a non-justiciable political question “rang hollow” when compared to the overwhelmingly proven problems with our lack of educational opportunity in certain counties. We need our leaders in the Legislature to bravely face and remedy the lack of educational opportunity that has been holding back the children of South Carolina.

Perhaps more compellingly, we need for our legislators to adequately fund the judicial branch. In the most recent year for which there are statistics, our courts faced the largest caseload of any state: Non-traffic-related cases per judge ranged from a low of 360 per full-time general jurisdiction court judge in Massachusetts to a high of 4,374 in South Carolina. Simply put, this is shameful. The World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index ranks the United States 65th of the 99 countries it evaluates. Imagine where South Carolina would rank if considered separately. Access to justice must begin with adequate funding of the judiciary. This enables the creation of more judgeships to meet the needs of our citizens.

The funding of public education and our courts of law are the responsibility of state government. We need elected leaders who believe in state government and their duty to make it work.

Columbia

This story was originally published April 16, 2015 at 7:00 PM with the headline "Collins: SC Legislature needs to fund schools and courts."