PARENT'S RIGHTS NOW!

According to "SC budget board cutting state budget 5 percent:"

South Carolina's high unemployment and slow tax collections are likely to put more people out of work or cut paychecks as the state's budget oversight board decided Tuesday to cut 5 percent from state budgets to keep the state's $5 billion spending plan balanced.

The $238.2 million reduction ordered by the Budget and Control Board means across-the-board spending cuts, but the public schools, the state's colleges, health care, welfare and prisons take the largest total hits in spending. In September, the board cut 4 percent from the state's budget to head off potential deficits, but the economy has continued to lose steam.

State tax collections have fallen sharply. South Carolina's 12 percent unemployment rate in October was the nation's fifth highest, a leading cause of plunging state tax collections.

Tuesday's reduction means a $100.5 million loss for the state's public schools in the wake of an $85.4 million cut in September. Schools had lost $513 million in the previous fiscal year, depleting reserves and raising the specter of thousands of teachers losing their jobs. While federal stimulus cash blunted that, districts are again fretting cuts to payrolls and programs.

"This goes above and beyond what I think many districts were trying to plan for and sends them back to the drawing board," said Scott Price, the lobbyist for the South Carolina School Boards Association. It will translate into furloughs and unfilled positions.

"That leads to things like increased class size. Things that aren't core programs would be on the chopping block," Price said.

Meanwhile, the state's Department of Health and Human Services loses $38.3 million from its Medicaid programs. Agency director Emma Forkner said last week she might not be able to handle that reduction without breaking state and federal laws or running a deficit.

State colleges lose $23 million, with the University of South Carolina giving up $6.7 million and Clemson University nearly $6 million.

The Department of Corrections loses $15.8 million. Agency director Jon Ozmint asked the board to let his prison system run a $13 million deficit in an effort to avoid telling his guards to take five more days of unpaid days off on top of the five furlough days they've already taken.

With all the funding shortfalls and South Carolina's increasing inability to provide federally-mandated and essential services, one cannot help but question why the State Continues to divert funds from the Department of Social Services to “non-profits," such as Heritage Community Services, which are neither accountable to the taxpayers nor providing essential services. More to the point, we wonder why DSS Director Dr. Kathleen Hayes has not publicly and forcefully opposed this raid on her budget.