Education has been a hard fought right. Richland 2 school board infighting is betraying it

The legal fight for equal education in the 20th century started in South Carolina in 1947 when Levi Pearson requested that the Clarendon County school board provide buses to take Black children to school.

Five years later, Pearson’s fight, with the help of fellow South Carolinians Rev. Joseph DeLaine, Harry and Eliza Briggs and others, had transformed into Brown v. Board, the federal case that ended segregation.

The Board of Trustees for the Richland 2 school district is disgracing this legacy of public education in South Carolina with its infighting and dysfunction. The board is betraying its mission and letting down students, hard-working teachers and administrators.

As reported by The State’s Bristow Marchant, a report by the South Carolina inspector general’s office “flags infighting among school board members as being detrimental to the district’s operations.”

“Over the last four years, the report found that only 14% of the board’s agenda items related to academic concerns,” Marchant reported. The report said “the Board addressed only five academic items over the last two school years when Board member acrimony and disruptive communications directed toward the superintendent, District staff and the public were the greatest.’”

Only 14% of agenda items were related to academics? Only five academic items were addressed in two school years?

This has to be one of the most shocking revelations to come out of a Midlands school board in recent memory. To say this is an not acceptable is an understatement.

Voters, as you cast your ballots, you should consider whether you think these actions of Richland 2 school board members are acceptable.

Gov. Henry McMaster requested the inspector general’s office look into the Richland 2 school board, Marchant reported. We should be wary of any political motivations by McMaster in his request. Some Republicans have made their disdain for public education well known. But any potential political motive for the inspection should be considered with board’s actual actions.

In recent months, The State has reported on the Richland 2 school board’s dysfunction, its shouting matches and a walkout among members. Does anyone remember what this infighting was about? Did it serve some higher purpose? No. It was caused by an inability to create compromise and govern for a greater good.

Who could forget board member Lashonda McFadden saying that she was going to beat then-Chairwoman Teresa Holmes’ “m-----f------ ass” during a meeting? That led to McFadden being charged with threatening a public official.

Richland 2 board members can’t even act like adults, and they’re making decisions about children’s education. The Richland 2 school board might as well be run by students. They could probably be more civil and do a better job.

South Carolinians have a long history of fighting for public education, to promote and expand it. That’s the kind of fighting the Richland 2 school board should be doing, not fighting among themselves.