Starting at Three Represents Amicus Groups in Appeal

In an amicus curiae brief filed this month in the South Carolina Supreme Court, the League of Women Voters of South Carolina and the South Carolina Conference of the NAACP urge the Court to uphold a state trial court order directing the legislature to provide pre-kindergarten for at-risk children. The League and NAACP, represented by Education Law Center (ELC) through its Starting at 3 project, vigorously defend the court’s order regarding early childhood interventions, which represents a major victory for South Carolina schoolchildren and proponents of quality preschool education. Research has shown that high quality early learning experiences are effective at closing achievement gaps and preparing at-risk children to enter kindergarten ready to learn—one essential element of comprehensive school reform efforts.

Judge Thomas Cooper issued the order in December 2005 at the conclusion of the trial in the South Carolina school funding case, Abbeville County Sch. Dist. v. State of South Carolina. (See our story on that decision here.) Judge Cooper ruled that South Carolina’s schoolchildren were being denied their right to an adequate education under the South Carolina Constitution because of the state’s failure to develop and fund early childhood intervention programs "designed to address the impact of poverty on children’s educational abilities and achievements." The court also denied all other relief that the plaintiffs had requested as necessary to provide an adequate education, such as increased resources, an improved teacher licensure system, greater funding for teacher retention, and better school facilities.

In January 2006, the parties had filed motions for reconsideration, which the court ultimately denied in July of 2007. In the reconsideration order, the trial court affirmed its earlier decision and reiterated that "the State owes a duty to provide children in poverty early childhood interventions to ensure that they have the opportunity to acquire a minimally adequate education."

Both sides appealed the trial court’s decision to the state Supreme Court. On appeal, the state argues that it was erroneous for the trial judge to find that the state has an obligation to provide early childhood intervention programs to the schoolchildren of South Carolina. The state alleges that the decision to require preschool programs is a non-justiciable policy matter left to the legislature’s discretion. It also contends that preschool is not within the scope of the education clause of the state constitution, and that that the trial judge applied a higher standard than "minimally adequate" to that clause.

ELC’s amicus brief on behalf of the League and NAACP amplifies arguments concerning the research on the educational benefits of prekindergarten, the demographics of South Carolina’s at-risk population and their special need for pre-k programs, and the implicit duty in the state constitution to make early intervention programs available to the youngest citizens of South Carolina.

An op-ed by the League and NAACP in support of the trial court's pre-K ruling was published on June 23, 2008, in South Carolina’s leading paper, The State. Oral argument on the Abbeville County appeal is scheduled before the Supreme Court on June 25, 2008

For information on litigation strategies relating to state-funded prekindergarten programs, contact Project Director Ellen Boylan, Esq., at eboylan@edlawcenter.org; (973) 624-1815, ext. 18.