RESEARCHERS ADDRESS S.C.'S RACIAL DISPARITY

Fifty years after the country began to dismantle official racial segregation, a new study by a group of university researchers suggests South Carolina is still living in its shadow.

And the researchers say they know how to start fixing the problem.

Buttressed by thousands of federal and state statistics, the "Miles to Go" report released Monday hammers home a single message -- by a wide range of measures, blacks in South Carolina on average aren't doing nearly as well as whites.

"Segregation, Jim Crowism, apartheid-- whatever you want to call it-- was very effective in the state of South Carolina," said David Swinton, president of Benedict College and a contributing researcher to the report.

The 200-page study took two years to put together and was sponsored by private donations and USC's Institute for Public Service and Policy Research.

The report is unique because it pairs hard research with specific policy recommendations.  It also is backed by a steering committee charged with pushing the agenda in political circles.

The release of the report was timed to coincide with Monday's 50th anniversary of the landmark Brown v.  Board of Education desegregation ruling.

To heal racial disparities that still exist, the report's recommendations call for new state government powers that evoke Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and Lyndon Johnson's Great Society.

They include:

A publics work program to eliminate unemployment

Universal health care for South Carolinians

A statewide minimum wage

State mandated affirmative action policies for all businesses

And a requirement that all new nationally certified teachers serve in low-performing schools.

"We hope that although some of ( the recommendations ) may be debatable and contentious and controversial, that they make their way into the public discourse of the state," said Fred Sheheen, a senior fellow at USC's policy institute who spearheaded the study.

The report is broken into five sections: education, justice, public life, family and health, and the economy.

Each is a statistics-based analysis of how African-Americans are generally in poorer health, earn less money and wind up in jail more than white counterparts.

For example, while African-Americans account for 30 percent of the state's population, they make up 70 percent of the inmates serving time in state prisons.

"The war on drugs, mandatory minimum sentences, have dramatically impacted the African-American community much more than the white community," said W.  Lewis Burke, a USC law professor who wrote the justice section of the report.

Sheheen, former director of the Commission on Higher Education, said an eight-member steering committee will urge lawmakers to study the proposals and he hopes the report doesn't "gather dust."

But some state legislators are already balking, calling the report an outdated, big government panacea.

"Maybe we should re-examine the budget if USC has all this money for left-wing, liberal studies," said Rep.  Dan Tripp, R-Greenville.

The "Miles to Go" report cost $100,000 to produce, with USC paying about half.  Sheheen said the school does not officially endorse the recommendations, which were devised by individual steering committee members.

Will Folks, spokesman for Gov.  Mark Sanford, said more government programs aren't the answer to South Carolina's ills.

"We can either empower people and empower the free market system, or we can continue down the path of relying on more government and more tax dollars to solve our problems," Folks said.

Sheheen said that while some of the proposals would be expensive to implement, the researchers intentionally stayed away from attaching price tags.

He added that if the state could spend money preserving the H.L.  Hunley, the resurrected Confederate submarine, it could invest in more social programs.

"The state spends money on a hell of a lot of things I don't think are important," he said.  "The General Assembly finds money for those purposes and projects it wishes to find money for."

Rep.  Joe Neal, D-Richland, gave the "Miles to Go" report a positive review, and said it will be useful in gathering public support for change.

"This report documents the reality of two South Carolinas," he said.  "As long as people continue to take refuge in political rhetoric, the state will never move forward."