Post and Courier (South Carolina)

Thousands of new homes will flood the Lowcountry in the coming decades, bringing with them a deluge of school-age children. But educators, lawmakers and concerned citizens question where the newcomers will attend school.

Nathaniel Frasier puts his kindergartner to bed by 9 p.m. each night and wakes him up at 6:30 a.m. for school. He thought his son was getting enough sleep and didn't realize until this week that recommendations call for up to an hour and a half more sleep than his son gets now.

Charleston County School District officials have been accused of failing to protect their students on a bus, in a bathroom and on school grounds.

Charleston County's weakest schools too often have the most inexperienced teachers. Only 36 of the county's 293 National Board Certified teachers, the highest credential in the profession, work in schools rated unsatisfactory on the state report card.

Heritage Community Services, a well- connected North Charleston nonprofit that teaches students to abstain from sex until marriage, has received or been allocated more than $23 million in state and federal money since 1997, including a $1.4 million infusion of state funds last year, tax documents and other records show.

COLUMBIA — A high school biology textbook up for review but questioned by State Board of Education members last month received approval Wednesday for use in classrooms, with 10 of 17 members voting to OK the book.

On the first anniversary of becoming the third-highest ranking member of Congress, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn returned to where his professional career began: the classroom.

GOOSE CREEK — Principal Susan Best wanted all 620 students at Sedgefield Intermediate School to begin their winter break with a special present from the school. "We want to give them the gift of reading," Best said. "I want our students to love books. The more our students read, the better readers they will become."...

South Carolina's outdated and inequitable school funding formula has educators calling for a sweeping set of changes that would revolutionize the state's financial approach to schools.

MONCKS CORNER — Berkeley Middle School teacher Lori Teuton says she wants to go back to her classroom, but not if it means compromising her safety. On Monday, the 12-year teaching veteran put her career in jeopardy by refusing to return to a class where a student threatened to "cut me with a knife," she said.

The state has listed James Stonier as a high school dropout since the 18-year-old quit Fort Dorchester High School earlier this year when his grades plummeted. But James spends more than five hours each day listening to teachers explain complicated math concepts and English skills.

The Beaufort woman graduated near the top of her class at Battery Creek High School, was listed in Who's Who Among American High School Students and initially qualified for a $20,000 college scholarship that would have helped her fulfill her dream of becoming a nurse.

Sea Islands YouthBuild Charter School has asked the Charleston County School District to immediately provide it with a free building, transportation, services for students with disabilities and a school resource officer. The charter school cited a section of state law that applies exclusiv...

MONCKS CORNER — A coalition of church leaders, psychologists, teachers and active community members should intervene to help focus students before they reach a point where school suspensions and expulsions are warranted, according to a proposal unveiled Tuesday night.

COLUMBIA — When then-seventh-grader Carlton Solomon Jr. threw a lit firecracker into the boys bathroom at school last year, he lost his phone privileges for a month and his father made him wake up at 8 o'clock the next few Saturday mornings to cut the grass. Carlton, now 13, also was...