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COVID-19 Pandemic Has Potential to Create "Education Crisis for A Generation" Of SC Students

School sign: "E-Learning, No School"

For the state's public schools the first of June normally marks the end of the school year.  But this year the coronavirus outbreak changed that.  On March, 2020 Gov. Henry McMaster ordered schools closed.

Last week, State Education Superintendent Mollie Spearman delivered an ominous assessment to a special State Senate Committee.  "This COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to create an education crisis for a generation of out South Carolina students," Spearman said.  She also said that one third of this instructional year was lost, and told the Senate committee that closing schools and attempting to continue instruction by  e-learning and other distance methods, has highlighted the familiar problem of disparity within the state’s public school system.

Russ McKinney has 30 years of experience in radio news and public affairs. He is a former broadcast news reporter in Spartanburg, Columbia and Atlanta. He served as Press Secretary to former S.C. Governor Dick Riley for two terms, and for 20 years was the chief public affairs officer for the University of South Carolina.