Legislative Victory in South Carolina

Legislative Victory in South Carolina

Future Reflections January- February 1984, Vol. 3 No. 1
(back) (contents) (next)
LEGISLATIVE VICTORY IN
SOUTH CAROLINA
by Donald C. Capps
Reprinted from the August/September, 1983
BRAILLE MONITOR
The National Federation of the Blind of South
Carolina is very proud to announce the passage
of H. 2124, which is legislation that redefines
"visually handicapped pupils" to mean pupils
age four and older instead of legal school age.
This is extremely important legislation. For
the first time, four-year-old blind children are
eligible to attend the public kindergarten
system of the State. It is the twentieth piece of
legislation and spearheaded by the National
Federation of the Blind of South Carolina to a
successful conclusion, representing a quarter
of a century of legislative success on behalf of
the state's blind.
While the legislation is very meritorious, its
passage was not easy. The House Education
Committee was given misinformation by some
representatives of the Department of Education concerning an impact study, and this was
corrected. The Greenville school district influenced
a Greenville County representative to
oppose the legislation on the grounds it would
cost too much, and we had to overcome this
opposition in committee and on the House
floor. The same misinformation on the impact
study done by the Department of Education
was given to the Senate Education Committee
and, once again, this misinformation had to be
corrected, and we did so.
Once H. 2142 cleared the Senate Education
Committee and was placed on the Senate calendar,
a Senator not hostile to the bill, but who
wanted to tack on a wholly unrelated amendment,
would have caused H. 2142 to have gone
back to the House where it may or may not
have been concurred in, jeopardizing ultimate
passage. Senator Rubin, a diplomat of the first
order, was successful in getting his Senate
colleague to withdraw the amendment and,
therefore, H. 2142 got third reading in the
Senate Tuesday afternoon, May 24, and probably
will undoubtedly be signed into law by
the Governor by the time you read this. Instead
of costing a quarter of a million dollars, as
indicated by the impact study done by the
Department of Education, it has been more
accurately determined that the legislation
requires only $50,000 annual appropriation to
fund. This is truly significant legislation as it
provides a real head start for four-year-old
blind children who need to be helped and
educated as early as possible.
While the Federation is extremely proud of this
legislation, we wish to thank others who were
interested in and assisted the Federation. This
includes the South Carolina School for the
Blind, and Commission for the Blind, as well as individuals actively involved in the education
of the blind. The education of blind children is
extremely important, and this particular legislation
provided a real opportunity for all of us
to work together in a commendable manner.
(back) (contents) (next)