South Carolina Faces $200 Million In Budget Cuts Thursday

By: Connie LeGrand | News Channel 7
Published: August 13, 2009

The State Budget and Control Board meets Thursday at 10 a.m. in Columbia, and educators are bracing for news they are about to be hit with another budget cut of four to five percent. South Carolina is looking at $200 Million dollars in budget cuts. The state's economic advisors have cut over $328 million from their revenue forecast since the state budget was passed. According to State Superintendent of Education Dr. Jim Rex, "Most of the school district expenses are related to personnel, so we may be look at further layoffs or restriction of numbers of courses offered and larger class sizes.”

It’s an opinion echoed by an Upstate Superintendent. Spartanburg District 4 Superintendent Dr. Rallie Liston lost ten employees last year, so the $400,000 cut he is expecting is a lot of money for a smaller district. Liston says, "We ordered paper and supplies, and we have frozen future requests for future supplies. Where else are you going to get it?" Dr. Liston says the district can dip into the reserve funds one more time, but that's it. According to Liston, “We can't do that one more year, so when we get into December and January, we are going to have to circle the wagon, and say where are we right now? What are we going to have to do?" Liston says school districts are already seeing larger class sizes. Personnel and program cuts could come next. "There is nothing else that we can cut,” says Liston.

However Dr. Liston says, the bottom line is, schools will take care of their students. "They don't know about the budget. They're not in tune with that. They want to know if they are going to feel loved. They want to know if there are going to be safe. Parents want to know that. That's something we can do, that I don't think you can put a price tag on that."

According to Dr. Rex, South Carolina school districts lost about 1900 employees last year. Rex says stimulus money saved 500 of those jobs this year; but those jobs could be in danger with an anticipated four to five percent cut.