Your child’s K-12 SC school district could be eliminated under House proposal

Parents and students in some South Carolina counties could see a significant reduction in the number of public school districts if lawmakers agree to a proposal that aims to consolidate districts into one per county by 2025.

That would include Lexington and Richland counties, which have five and three districts, respectively.

Under a bill — H. 4100 — filed this year by state Rep. Heather Crawford, R-Horry, each county in the state would have a single school district beginning in 2025. The proposal would shrink the number of districts from more than 70 to 46.

“Counties having multiple school districts can create a top-heavy approach, and it can place a strain on budgets,” Crawford told The State last week, referring to the amount of money that’s spent on district-level administration. “So, this is about making sure that we are able to educate children in the best way possible and that we’re able to put as much money into our classrooms as possible.”

Crawford represents Horry County, which is the fourth-largest county in the state and has only one school district.

“Horry has one school district, is a top-performing school district, and we have very different areas from the coast to rural Horry, and (one school district) works quite well here,” Crawford said.

This is Crawford’s second attempt at statewide consolidation, following a similar effort in 2021.

Currently, 11 counties in the state have two or more school districts, including in Anderson, Barnwell, Dillon, Dorchester, Florence, Greenwood, Laurens, Lexington, Richland, Spartanburg and York counties.

The push to consolidate South Carolina schools stretches back several years.

Gov. Henry McMaster centered his 2019 State of the State address around the issue, saying he was in favor of education reform by, in part, consolidating school districts.

In 2021, he signed off on a proposal to merge all three school districts in Clarendon County. And, in March of that year, the S.C. Department of Education announced plans to merge Florence 1 and Florence 4, effective July 1, 2022, following recent consolidation efforts in Bamberg, Barnwell, Clarendon and Hampton counties.

Advocates of merging some of South Carolina’s 79 school districts say it would improve the quality of student education by, chiefly, diverting money from administration into classrooms.

It’s a rare issue that has attracted support from some South Carolina Republicans and Democrats, McMaster, conservative think-tank Palmetto Promise Institute and the S.C. School Boards Association. In previous years, teacher advocacy groups, such as grassroots group SC for ED, have endorsed the plan, arguing that 79 school districts are far too many for a state the size of South Carolina.

But Scott Price, executive director of the School Boards Association, said district consolidation is best decided at the local, not state level.

“We would not be supportive of a bill that would force consolidation of all school districts in the countywide districts,” Price said. “If you look at some of the districts, particularly in the Upstate, you got some large and some growing districts up there, and it just would not be a good fit for them to try to consolidate into a countywide district.”

State vs. local issue

Consolidating school districts is “a good conversation to have, and it’s a good opportunity to take a look at our state, the diversity of our state and the sizes of our schools because our population is growing,” said former state Rep. Rita Allison, who for years chaired the House’s Public Works and Education Committee.

Allison, a former school board member whose House seat included part of Spartanburg County, which has seven school districts, agrees with Price.

In considering the diversity of school districts around the state, Allison said while over the House education committee, policymakers found that district consolidation worked best when decided locally.

“I know that across Spartanburg, where I come from, we’ve had a need for more and more schools as more people move into the area,” Allison said. “So, (district consolidation) is something that you have to do a lot of research on in looking at what’s best for not only South Carolina, but those students we’re serving.”

Other lawmakers, particularly those who represent counties with one school district, say the pros outweigh the cons.

State Rep. Wendell Gilliard, D-Charleston, said having a single school district in Charleston County has proved effective.

“I would rather have too many problems under one umbrella than too many problems under many umbrellas,” Gilliard said. “Working under one umbrella (or school district) has made us more productive and more expedient” in Charleston.

Crawford challenged concerns over school district diversity, arguing “there’s probably no other county that is more diverse than Horry,” and said having one school district there “works quite well.”

In Richland County, where there are three school districts, lawmakers say consolidating those districts would be a logistical nightmare.

House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, said a statewide district consolidation approach is “not a good idea.”

“There are certainly smaller counties with very small school districts where combining them would do a great deal of good, but I just simply believe Richland has gotten to the point where their school districts are way too big to try to combine them at this point,” he said.

State Sen. John Scott, a Democrat who also represents Richland County, echoed Rutherford.

Consolidating school districts “is a lot more work than you anticipate,” Scott said. “I’m pretty conservative when it comes down to spending money, but it has got to make sense, and consolidating districts in Richland doesn’t make sense.”

Other critics of the measure say reducing the number of districts may result in layoffs.

But Crawford said she isn’t advocating for “mass firings or layoffs.”

Counties with multiple school districts require multiple district offices stacked with high-salaried superintendents.

Crawford said fostering high-paying administrative salaries could “severely restrict the amount of money going directly to the classroom and, in return, to the student.”

South Carolina superintendents on average earn $161,686, according to the latest data from the S.C. Department of Education.

“We’re not closing schools,” Crawford said. “We’re simply realigning the top, realigning the administration. What you do is you phase people out over time, if they retire, and you don’t need them in the new combined district office, then you don’t rehire for that position.”

State lawmakers have been trying to encourage school district consolidation by offering financial incentives to pay for consolidation costs, such as technology, salaries, transportation and more.

Others have been forced into consolidation under a measure that allows the state superintendent of education to merge school districts if one has fewer than 1,500 students, is in financial disarray or faces threats to accreditation.

For example, Florence 4 in Timmonsville had come under increasing scrutiny from state officials over education, staff and financial issues. In 2016, the S.C. Department of Education began providing “intensive support” for the district. And, two years later, the department declared a state of emergency because of district financial issues, low student performance, high staff turnover and more. As a result, Florence 4 was consolidated into Florence 1.

One characteristic common among recently merged school districts is they’re in rural areas and are losing residents to cities such as Columbia, Charleston, Greenville and Charlotte.

A 2017 study commissioned by the S.C. Department of Education found that small districts, especially in poor, rural areas, tend to be worse off than urban districts in staffing, training, funding, equipment and efficiency.

That’s because a more limited staff and a smaller tax base prevents schools from competing with larger districts’ teacher pay; a smaller staff means administrators are less specialized and must do several jobs; smaller districts are less likely to afford software that can increase efficiency in transportation or finance; and small districts often have less cash on hand, according to the study by the consulting group Alvarez & Marsal on behalf of the education department.

But Price, who advocates for local control over consolidation, said the issue isn’t so black and white.

“Sometimes you’ll hear legislators, in particular, that will say, ‘Well, you can get rid of five superintendents and have only one superintendent and we’ll just save billions of dollars, but that’s not always the case,” Price said. “You have to look at what the debt service differences are between the districts because somebody is going to have to make that up, … and you also have to look at teacher salaries, they’re going to have to be equalized, and that’s going to cost money.”