Politics meets poverty in rural S.C.

from The Charlotte Observer

CAMPAIGNS TOUR `CORRIDOR OF SHAME'

Presidential candidates put focus on Palmetto State's poor

JIM MORRILL

It was more than a half-century ago that a black principal named J.A. DeLaine, fed up with racial disparities, helped bring a lawsuit against his small school district in Clarendon County, S.C.

It became part of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 1954 ruling that desegregated American schools. But today, Clarendon County remains part of the "Corridor of Shame," a swath of poor S.C. counties where schools remain largely segregated and economic opportunities are few.

"That community is no better off than it was 50 years ago," says DeLaine's son Joseph, 74, of Charlotte. "You're dealing with a Third World country."

Today, former U.S. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina travels to Clarendon and other counties along the corridor, which runs from Dillon County on the N.C. state line south along Interstate 95 and west to Allendale County on the Georgia border.

Edwards' visit is the latest trip to the largely African American region by a presidential candidate. The attention comes amid a scurry for votes in January's S.C. primaries. The area is heavily Democratic.

Two months ago, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois toured a Dillon County school built in 1896. Sen. Hillary Clinton, a New York Democrat, said in a radio ad last month that children in the corridor are "invisible" to the current president.

Arizona Sen. John McCain and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, both Republicans, also have visited the region.

The problems in Clarendon and other rural counties stem from poverty and the lack of economic development that feeds it.

"The corridor represents a very important symbol, not only of what's happening in rural South Carolina, but what is the fundamental issue of education in the rural South," says Steve Suitts, program coordinator for the Atlanta-based Southern Education Foundation.

Education is just one problem in the S.C. corridor.

"(It's also) abysmal health statistics, joblessness and infrastructure problems," says Fred Carter, president of Francis Marion University in Florence.

The plight of poor schools

The term "Corridor of Shame" was coined by Bud Ferillo, a Columbia advertising executive who made it the title of a 2005 documentary. Widely shown in South Carolina, it was designed to generate support for a lawsuit against the state by eight poor school districts on behalf of 28 others.Like the case J.A. DeLaine helped bring in 1949, the so-called Abbeville case claimed that schools in poor districts were underfunded, with lower test scores, higher dropout rates and worse facilities than those elsewhere in the state.

The Abbeville case was filed in 1993.

A year later, a similar case -- known as Leandro -- was filed by several counties in North Carolina, and came to involve urban districts including Charlotte-Mecklenburg, where its effects are still being felt.

In the S.C. case, a state judge delivered a mixed ruling in 2005. While preschool programs were inferior, he said, overall the schools were adequate. The ruling was appealed to the state Supreme Court, where arguments are scheduled for the spring.

The poor districts and their proponents are fighting to change the way schools are funded in South Carolina. Though poor schools get more state money, critics say it's not enough.

"If we put sufficient revenues in these declining school districts and stay with it ... we probably would have South Carolina's entire school system in the top third in the country," says Ferillo, 61.

The poverty problem

While the S.C. economy is booming in pockets along the coast, in the Upstate and in suburban Charlotte, much of the state remains poor.

More than 14 percent of South Carolinians live below the poverty line, according to the most recent census figures available. Only 11 states -- almost all in the South -- had a higher poverty rate.

In Clarendon County, 23 percent of residents fell below the poverty line.

"When children graduate from school, there's nothing to do," says Clarendon native Joseph DeLaine. "If they become a success, they become a success by going somewhere else."

Traveling through the corridor gives candidates a chance to tout proposals on education and rural development they see as a way to chip away at the region's poverty. It's also a way to court voters.

"Coming to the `Corridor of Shame' ... is like going to that post office in New Hampshire where John Kennedy gave his announcement speech -- it's something you've got to do," says former state Democratic Chairman Dick Harpootlian.

State school Superintendent Jim Rex says he doubts all the recent attention will make much difference when S.C. legislators consider changing school funding formulas.

"I don't think it helps or hinders the challenge that we have (in) dealing with these disparities and inequalities," he says. "I don't think that South Carolinians or South Carolina legislators are going to be particularly swayed one way or the other."

The `Corridor of Shame'

That was the title of a 2005 film documenting the disparities in schools in several of South Carolina's poorest counties. It generally refers to a strip of counties from the state's northeast corner, southwest along I-95 to near the Georgia line.

The film was made to support a lawsuit against the state by eight poor school districts. The suit said that in the districts:

• 88.4 percent of students are minority. The state average is 48.1 percent.

• 86 percent of students are on free and reduced lunch, compared with a state average of 55 percent.

• 75 percent of schools are unsatisfactory and below average, compared with 17.4 percent of all S.C. schools.

• High school dropout rates range from 44 percent to 67 percent.

• Teachers make less money than those in other districts.