By Lindsay Street, Statehouse correspondent | Internet providers seeking funds to bring broadband to rural parts of the state started applying for funding this week.
“(Vendors have) been waiting. Almost every day, we are getting calls for when is (the dashboard) going to be ready,” Office of Regulatory Staff (ORS) spokesman Ron Aiken said. “People are chomping at the bit for this money.”
The S.C. Broadband Infrastructure Program, under the ORS, has launched an online dashboard, which includes maps of underserved areas, project applications and vendor applications.
Aiken said 550 geographic areas of need have been identified with 150 listed as “high priority.”
The state broadband program will use $50 million of federal coronavirus relief funds to provide financial assistance to install and deliver broadband infrastructure around the state. The money was set aside by state lawmakers earlier this summer.
In other news:
Lawmakers graded on conservation. TheConservation Voters of South Carolina released its 2019-2020 Conservation Scorecard this week. Some lawmakers receive lower scores because they didn’t vote on either one or more of five bills in the House or vote on the one conservation bill in the Senate. CVSC Deputy Director Rebecca Haynes said: “If you miss one of those, it’s going to dramatically affect your score.” It likely hurt freshman lawmakers the most, she said. See the scorecard here.
Hembree says education reform do-over may happen. Both chambers passed versions of education reform in the 2019-2020 session but that doesn’t mean it will be resolved during the September mini-session. “A lot of wind is blowing against getting things done in the fall,” Senate Education Chair Greg Hembree, R-North Myrtle Beach, told Statehouse Report this week. He said he is “already making a Plan B” and getting piecemeal bills ready for pre-filing in December, assuming education reform is “a casualty of coronavirus.” House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Darlington, began introducing some education reforms earlier this year.
152 of unaccounted-for students in S.C. had active DSS cases. Investigations of child abuse or neglect were already under way for 152 of the nearly 3,200 students still unheard of by their schools. Tens of thousands of public school students essentially dropped off the radar for their teachers and school staff when they moved to distance learning in mid-March. Since that time, schools have been able to track down all except more than 3,000. Our previous coverage:
- 3,551 students remain unaccounted-for in recent report (July 31)
- Schools work to find 16,085 students (July 3)
- ‘A Stephen King Novel:’ Schools can’t find thousands of students (June 26)
- Students being left behind in widening digital divide (May 15)
A new face for the September session. Voters in the James Island-anchored House District 115 will determine Tuesday who will finish out the term of former Rep. Peter McCoy, who was plucked this year from the legislature to become U.S. Attorney. The term will only last a couple months before the general election. Republican Josh Stokes, Democratic candidate Spencer Wetmore and Green Party candidate Eugene Platt are competing for the seat. Read more.
State unemployment filings now tops 700K. The S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce reports more than 700,000 people in the state have filed initial claims for unemployment. Read more. This report comes ahead of a critical federal payroll report expected later today. Economists forecast 1.48 million jobs were gained in July, down sharply from the 4.8 million in June, according to Dow Jones. Read more.
Census door knocking cut a month short. Amid pressure from the White House to finish its decennial count, the Census Bureau will stop conducting in-person outreach Sept. 30, instead of the planned Oct. 31. The shift in plans has sparked concerns of a “massive undercount.” Read more.
Highway projects, virus expenses, broadband more to be heard Tuesday. The Joint Bond Review Committee will meet virtually at 10virtually 10:30 a.m. Aug. 11. On the agenda: S.C. Transportation Infrastructure Bank funding for highway projects; status report on the committee’s broadband’s oversight panel; COVID-19 expenditures by S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control and the Medical University of South Carolina; and the annual report of the SC Jobs Economic Development Authority. Read agenda.
Senators talk on draft report of testing, tracing in S.C. The Senate Re-Open South Carolina Committee’s testing and tracing panel meets 11 a.m. Aug. 12 in room 105 of the Gressette building at the Statehouse grounds in Columbia. The meeting will discuss a draft of the panel’s report. Read agenda.
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