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Education reform to be a top priority for upcoming legislative session

With the legislative session less than a week away, lawmakers speak to the press about their priorities for the state.
Credit: WLTX

Leaders from the South Carolina House of Representatives and Senate spoke with reporters on Thursday to address what they will be focusing on as the 123rd legislative session begins on January 8th.

Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey says Senate Republicans want to focus on higher education, K-12 education, workforce development, pension reform and infrastructure.

"I don't think the problem with K-12 is that legislatures don't care about it," says Sen. Massey, R-Edgefield. "The problem is that they do care about it and everybody has their own ideas. The difficulty will be getting the consensus necessary in order to pass something big that will be meaningful."

Senate Minority Leader Nikki Setzler agree that education should be first, but that should also include teacher salary increases and changes in testing requirements.

He also spoke about health care, specifically helping rural areas that are losing hospitals around the state.

"Five rural hospitals closed in South Carolina," says Sen. Setzler, D-Lexington. "If the Orangeburg hospital closes, which we hope to God it doesn't, there would be no hospital between Charleston and Lexington Medical Center at I-26 and 378. That's important and we have to deal with that."

The House Majority and Minority leaders were on a similar page, focusing their efforts on infrastructure and healthcare, but education is top priority for all.

"We know that it's an issue," says Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland. "We know that we can't do workforce development without it, we can't do economic development without it. So, how do we get to where we are planning to go."

"Personally, I'd like to see casino revenue go towards roads and medical marijuana can go towards healthcare," says Rep. Rutherford. "We know that education funding will be one of the preemptive issues. How we get to the end result, I don't know yet." 

"What we really have to know is how much we spend currently per child in South Carolina," says Rep. Gary Simrill, R-York. "Eighty plus school districts we have in South Carolina, not all of them spend the same money, but what exactly are we talking about? I want us on the same page of understanding so that we can move forward."

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