Salkehatchie Consortium

The Salkehatchie Consortium is a consortium which has been in operation for over twenty years and is presently composed of eleven rural school districts. The entire region covered by the Salkehatchie Consortium is plagued with difficulties which interfere with the schools’ abilities to meet the needs of children and communities. This rural area is very economically deprived! Many statistics indicate that we definitely need help. Some examples of such statistics are the high incidence of births to unwed mothers, low per capita incomes, the high percentage of students on free and reduced lunch, and extremely low college entrance scores. The need for support of school districts in Salkehatchie Consortium is very clear. These statistics and others reveal a significant gap between the region covered by the Salkehatchie Consortium and the state of South Carolina.

1. We believe any state mandate should be fully funded.

2. We believe that the General Assembly must provide full funding of base teacher salaries at or above the national average.

3. We support continued emphasis on parental involvement as it relates to quality education in the state of South Carolina.

4. We believe that an extended school year should be provided and funded by the state to students who need additional instruction.

5. We support early childhood initiative such as First Steps.