Education #1 in SC District 123
Three Republicans battled it out yesterday at a debate in Hilton Head’s state House District 123. The three participants in the debate were challengers Starletta Hairston and Stu Rodman along with incumbent Richard Chalk. Throughout this “civil” debate, education seemed to be the number one priority on the peoples’ minds.
The issue that received the most attention was the state’s education formula, which the candidates agreed puts local public schools at a disadvantage.
The biggest difference among the three was over who could bring home the most money for education.
Voicing her frustration with the current formula, Hairston, a former county council member, said, “I’d like to be that squeaky wheel in Columbia that talks about this and shows them that we have families that are low income; we have families with children that (receive) free or reduced lunch, which they think we don’t have down here.”
Stu Rodman, a current county councilman and a former school board member, argued his experience working with the schools makes him ideally qualified to find creative solutions to the funding problem. “I came out of a financial background,” Rodman said during the debate, “but my heart is really in seeing if we can make a difference in education and education funding.”
Chalk pointed out that he was already sitting on a task force in the House to examine the funding formula and argued that the best chance the county has to see improvement is by gaining clout in the state legislature.
