New SC budget adds school cash, raises concerns

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Educators say South Carolina’s new budget adds money to classrooms and school buses and could ease problems in school schools around the state.

Public education spending accounts for more than a third of the $6 billion spending plan that took effect Friday. And it survived all but one of Gov. Nikki Haley’s budget vetoes with Legislature overriding by overwhelming margins.

The budget adds $12.4 million for school buses, $20 million to deal with flaws in the statewide school funding formula and $56 million in additional per-student spending.

But legislators and Gov. Nikki Haley did scrap a SAT improvement program.

Scott Price of the South Carolina School Boards Association says that doesn’t seem to mesh with the thinking that SAT test scores are a measuring stick for the state.