The panel for The Post and Courier’s education discussion Monday, Jan. 28, in Florence include Colleton County Superintendent Franklin Foster, Florence District 3 (Lake City) Superintendent Laura Hickson, Francis Marion University President Fred Carter and businesswoman Darla Moore, a philanthropist and Lake City native who founded education nonprofits. Seanna Adcox/Staff
FLORENCE — Teachers should walk out en masse and the state’s biggest employers should threaten to leave if legislators don’t pass sweeping changes this year to begin transforming South Carolina’s education system, said leading businesswoman and philanthropist Darla Moore.
South Carolina’s “horrific” education results require a comprehensive makeover, she said Monday at The Post and Courier’s panel discussion on education titled, “Minimally Adequate: Fix South Carolina Schools.” It was the last of a four-event series held across the state.
“If I were a Boeing or BMW — 1) I would not come to South Carolina because of the education system. Today, given their economic power in this state, those and others, I would go to the leadership of this state and say, ‘You need to do something about this or I’m going to leave,’” said Moore. She’s a Lake City native whose latest projects include a $23 million career center she’s funding for local high-schoolers.
Legislative leaders have made overhauling South Carolina’s education system their top priority in the wake of The Post and Courier’s Minimally Adequate series. Last November’s five-part series laid out how gaping disparities have made South Carolina’s public school system one of the nation’s worst and left thousands of students unprepared for college or work after high school.
Francis Marion University President Fred Carter applauded the promises made by Gov. Henry McMaster and House Speaker Jay Lucas in…
