Education

The landmark Brown v. Board of Education court decision, which banned racial segregation in public schools across the country, was issued in 1954. Yet South Carolina schools didn’t really begin desegregating until the 1970s. Even when they did, 131 “segregation academies” popped up around the state, the ghosts of which can still be seen today — 1 in 8 Palmetto State schools are 90% or more minority students. It’s not just the history that’s cause for concern. South Carolina is struggling to retain teachers, and our test scores, benchmarks and education system as a whole consistently rank toward the bottom of nearly every list out there. Jennifer Berry Hawes, one of The Post and Courier’s reporters behind the “Minimally Adequate” project, is on the show this week to help make sense of it all. The big question: Why is South Carolina’s education system continually among the worst in the nation, and did the 2018 legislative session offer any hope for improvement? How can the state fix fundamental issues of division and equal opportunity? Further Reading Minimally Adequate: A 5-part investigation into South Carolina’s struggling schools SC lawmakers pass $9 billion budget, including teacher and public employee raises