Our weekly Top Five feature offers big stories or views from the past week with policy and legislative implications.
- Understanding the significance of Reconstruction in the history of the Palmetto State, The State, April 16, 2016
We missed this story last week but found some of the information compelling — that the Reconstruction era after the Civil War had a number of achievements for black South Carolinians and played an important role in the state’s history and politics — and is still felt today.
- State grapples with info problems about lead in water, Greenville News, April 23, 2016
The state’s agency regulating water has told federal officials that it wants water systems to share more information on lead sampling results in public water but that it has little information now. After all of the problems in Flint, Mich., this could pose problems down the road.
- State schools shortchanged — again — in state budget, The State, April 26, 2016
Despite $1.2 billion in additional money to spend, lawmakers will once again short-change schools and local governments by $600 million, due primarily to the refusal to increase the gas tax. Meanwhile, the House this week approved borrowing of $200 million annually to pay for schools. More.
- GrowFood Carolina looks to boost state’s smallest farms, Charleston City Paper, April 27, 2016.
The ‘buy local’ movement may have gained traction in recent years, but small farms in S.C. still struggle. This story highlights how 80 percent of Charleston’s local population could be fed with food grown within 50 miles of the Holy City.
- States developing performance-based systems for funding higher ed, Governing magazine, April 2016
Analysts Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene outline how some 20 states are starting to make colleges work for funding with performance-based systems.
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