COLUMBIA S.C.
Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards has become the latest Democratic presidential candidate to address struggling South Carolina schools in a rural swath dubbed the “Corridor of Shame.”
Edwards visited two schools Thursday in the region along Interstate 95 where some of the poorest areas of South Carolina are found along with several school districts that have sued the state, saying the way it pays for schools is unfair.
Fellow Democratic presidential hopefuls are talking about the area too. Illinois Sen. Barrack Obama visited the region in August and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton used the area in a radio ad, where she said: “If you are a child in a crumbling school along the ‘Corridor of Shame,’ you are invisible to this president.”
But neither the lawyer defending the school districts nor the state education superintendent think the candidates can influence the state to give up its legal fight or the Republican-controlled Legislature to give schools more money.
“I wish there was someone who could ride in on a white horse and change things,” said Education Superintendent Jim Rex, the only Democrat elected to statewide office. “But it’s a South Carolina problem and something South Carolinians created over decades. We’re the ones who will have to solve it.”
The attention may at least help South Carolinians realize improving education is a national issue, not just a state problem, Rex said.
