Courting Disaster in South Carolina

Published: March 29, 2009

Now that Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina has polished his credentials with the Republican right by recklessly rejecting $700 million in federal education stimulus money, we keep hoping he will change his mind and put the needs of his recession-ravaged state ahead of his political ambitions.

It will be up to more responsible political leaders to act if Mr. Sanford sticks by his disastrous choice, which would drive an already depressed state economy deeper into a hole and place even more South Carolinians at risk of losing their homes.

In the State Legislature, it was encouraging to see influential Republicans’ distancing themselves from what State Senator Hugh Leatherman, the Finance Committee chairman, rightly describes as an irresponsible policy. In a letter sent to Mr. Sanford last week, Mr. Leatherman pleaded with him to change his mind, writing that rejecting the funds would “create absolute chaos in governmental agencies that perform core missions for the people, and will hurt tens of thousands of South Carolina families at a time when uncertainty and fear over the economy already pervade almost every household.”

The federal stimulus money is meant to shield schools from layoffs and reignite a national reform effort that still has a long way to go in places like South Carolina. Without the federal money, state lawmakers say, tuition at state-supported universities could increase dramatically and thousands of teachers could be laid off.

With South Carolina’s unemployment rate already one of the highest in the nation, state lawmakers seem poised to invoke a provision of the federal stimulus law that allows them to override the governor’s decision. They worry, however, that a legal challenge might tie up the issue in the courts beyond the beginning of the state’s next fiscal year.

It would be best, therefore, for Mr. Sanford to find a face-saving way to reverse himself. If he does not, voters should remember that their governor placed politics ahead of schoolchildren and the schools that are struggling to save them.