Published in The Johnsonian
Rural parts of South Carolina have been in a battle to receive an adequate education for over 65 years. Summerton, SC was the setting for Briggs v. Elliott, the first of the five cases in the famous Brown v. Board of Education supreme court case in which it was decided that the “separate but equal” ruling allowing segregated schools for so long was unconstitutional. The Brown v. Board of education ruling was not the end of the rural south’s struggle. 50 years after the case, students in these poor rural areas made up of mostly minority students are still falling behind. These rural underfunded school districts stretch along interstate 95 and were dubbed “The Corridor of Shame” by a documentary that came out in 2007. These districts decided to come together and file a suit against the state. According to the documentary, Abbeville County School District v. The State of South Carolina had 36 plaintiff school districts. 75 percent of schools in the plaintiff districts are below average and the high school dropout rates are between 44 and 67 percent. In 2005, the court ruled in favor of South Carolina, stating that South Carolina was providing a minimally adequate education. The plaintiff districts decided to file motions to reconsider in 2006 but the case was dismissed; in 2007 the 36 school districts voted to appeal their case to the South Carolina supreme court. In 2014, The State reported that the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled the state failed in its job to provide students with a minimally adequate education and mandated state legislators fix the problem. LaRaven Temoney, a McNair scholar at Winthrop University has been conducting research to determine if the conditions in the corridor of shame have improved since the ruling. After comparing data using variables including state scholarship eligibility, amount of teachers with advanced degrees, teacher salaries and unemployment rate, Temoney concluded there has not been an increase in the quality of education in the area. “With the trends that I was able to see, I found that even when you gave an equal playing field for corridor of shame schools and not corridor of shame schools, the corridor of shame schools still underperformed even with wiping out unemployment rate, or per capita income, it still showed vast differences between them,” Temoney said. It’s not only in quantitative data that the remaining academic deficiencies can be seen. Kayla Newsome, a psychology major, went to Hartsville High School in the Darlington County School district, one of the 36 counties that filed in the suit. Newsome said that she could see a lot of problems with the structure of the school. “There was mold and mildew in almost every building and every time it rained there were widespread leaks. A ceiling in our newest classroom building caved in and there were holes in many of the buildings,” Newsome said. Newsome also said that despite having a good International Baccalaureate (IB) program, the school lacked a lot of resources, especially for students who were not a part of the program. “I feel as though I had a lot of educational opportunities through the IB program, but it was very clear that students who took regular classes were at a severe disadvantage. Our library had very few text resources for students to use. So few that IB students were given access to the Coker College library so that we could do our research,” Newsome said. Austin Spencer, a freshman political science major went to Dixie High School in Abbeville County, the district in which the court case is named for. Spencer said that the school was blatantly underfunded, to a point where they didn’t have a librarian. “Our librarian retired my sophomore year, so the librarian in the elementary school in our district doubled as our librarian and their librarian, so not all the time did we have a librarian on campus,” Spencer said. The school had no AP or IB classes, and there were very minimal class options and even less teachers. Altogether, Spencer said the school has four English teachers, three math teachers, and one spanish teacher. Spanish was the only foreign language that students had the option to take. “If you want to go to college you have to supplement your classes with going to Midlands Tech, but that was only if you could afford to do so, and not many could. That really stunted a lot of people's ability to be able to go to college,” Spencer said. As for future improvements, Temoney said that some state legislators attempting to pass legislation to solve the issue, but there has also been a new ruling stating that the districts no longer have to follow the mandate. “There are some legislators who are working on trying to get more funding for these schools and attracting higher quality teachers. However, the mandate was recently dismantled so technically, they are not required to follow the supreme court ruling anymore,” Temoney said. Temoney went to school at Sumter High School- part of the corridor of shame- and said the ruling to dismantle the mandate is disheartening, because of the adverse effect the issues at these schools have on the people who attend them. “It hurts my heart because with me personally being from the corridor of shame, that put me at a disadvantage. I know if some people aren’t blessed to receive other opportunities to even the playing field, that it can have a long term effect on them. Because in America we like to say that no matter what is thrown at you, you can overcome it, but there are certain things like your education that can prevent this. If your experience as a child is really poor compared to other people, that can put you at a disadvantage for years and that is something that you may not even be able to shake off even as you grow up, so it is a little sad that they don’t have to follow the mandate anymore. There is still so much that can be done,” Temoney said. Students who go to school in the Corridor of Shame also have lasting effects once they get to college. Mark Dewalt, chair of educational research at Winthrop, said that college students who went to these schools may be at a disadvantage once they get to college. “Less access to technology will impact them in college because, if you look at a school like Winthrop, everything is on the computer so these students need to make sure they are seeking the help they need to overcome that barrier. They also have experienced less advanced courses and tend to be behind in things like math or other advanced courses,” Dewalt said. Dewalt also said coming from the corridor of shame will not only affect their schoolwork, but their social life as well. “With being near Charlotte we are in a metro area, so coming from a rural area will make them wonder how they fit in,” Dewalt said. Temoney said despite her success with getting into the McNair program, she still has issues with adjusting and being caught up with her peers. “I noticed that when I was in school, I didn’t learn a lot of grammar rules so when it comes to writing I need extra help and I take longer to come up with things. That is something that happened as a child, that I didn’t receive as much education as people in that area. It is definitely an adjustment. Especially because most of that area is rural for people who were raised in those rural areas you don’t have access to that many things so when you come to college it is like a whole new world. You are out of the country and you’re in the city and you’re exposed to so many different things and so many different people. At first it can be really hard to adjust because it is like a culture shock,” Temoney said. Both Temoney and Spencer said that despite their backgrounds being less than ideal, they feel where they went to school shaped them into who they are today. “I feel like corridor of shame students have more of a hunger for learning and we know all that we have been through and we know that we had all of these disadvantage growing up, so it’s like when we come to some place like Winthrop where it is so inclusive and there are so many opportunities for us, we are more willing to go after things after getting comfortable and situated because we know we didn’t have these opportunities beforehand so we are going to take advantage of them knowing that we can now,” Temoney said. Spencer said that he was glad he chose Winthrop because it made the transition easier. “Most students don’t go to college and if they do, they go to tech or vocational school, so it really was a shock when I came here. I think it’s really great that I came to Winthrop as opposed to a bigger school like Clemson, because I would not have been able to handle Clemson. That would have been too much of a jump from where I came versus that place. This is in equal parts great and awful that I came from such a small background. It’s great because it gives you that perspective, because you don’t realize how bad it can be unless you’ve been in that situation. It’s great to have that perspective and see that going forward, but simultaneously you always wish you had something better or you always wish you had grew up somewhere better,” Spencer said.
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