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Traffic flows into Charleston Air Force Base's front entrance on Dorchester Road on  Jan. 9, 2020, in North Charleston. Col. Marc Greene, commander of the 628th Air Base Wing at Joint Base Charleston, said that while the military is thriving overall in the Lowcountry, the state's poor reputation for education is a red flag for active-duty airmen, retired service members and their families who want to make South Carolina their permanent home. File/Grace Beahm Alford/Staff

One of South Carolina's highest-ranking members of the military made a worried comment to Charleston business leaders recently: The quality of the state's education system is hurting the ranks and, maybe, Pentagon readiness, too.

Col. Marc Greene, commander of the 628th Air Base Wing at Joint Base Charleston, said while the military is thriving overall in the Lowcountry, the state's poor reputation for education is a red flag for active-duty airmen, retired service members and their families who want to make South Carolina their permanent home. 

"If you have a base that needs to support people, and the education system is not up to snuff, then it's hard to retain that family long term," Greene said at a June 1 meeting of the North Charleston Chamber of Commerce and the Palmetto Military Support Group.

"And so our readiness, our ability to do our jobs, gets degraded over time," he warned.

South Carolina is home to bases representing each branch of the armed services. It boasts one of the largest veteran and military retiree populations in the country. And, notably, the Pentagon provides for nearly 200,000 jobs in the Palmetto State.

But South Carolina's education system consistently ranks as one of the lowest in the nation, most recently listed 43rd in the country for education by U.S. News and World Report.

While they may not seem connected, military officials said the consistently low marks of South Carolina's schools can affect long-term stability, make it hard to recruit new service members and, at the extreme, might potentially influence a base-closure decision.

Addressing education quality across the nation has been a long-standing issue for the Department of Defense. In a 2018 letter to the National Governors Association, the former secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force identified two main issues for service members and their families: low-quality education systems and the reciprocity of professional licenses for military spouses so they can stay employed when moving around the country.

The letter stated these are "factors military families cite most frequently as drawbacks to military service." It added the Department of Defense "will encourage leadership to consider the quality of schools near bases and whether reciprocity of professional licenses is available for military families when evaluating future basing or mission alternatives."

South Carolina lawmakers addressed the license reciprocity issue in 2020 when Gov. Henry McMaster signed the Armed Service Members and Spouses Professional and Occupational Licensing Act into law. It allows temporary licenses for jobs such as cosmetology, physical therapy and nursing to spouses of active military members who already hold a license in another state.

State lawmakers have vowed to make fixing schools a top priority. Interest in an education overhaul has grown since The Post and Courier’s five-part “Minimally Adequate” series detailed broad disparities in South Carolina's education system that now threaten the state’s economic vitality.

But reforms have been slow-moving. 

"It's never moving fast enough," said Patrick Kelly, the director of governmental affairs for the Palmetto State Teachers Association. "We've seen movement, but it has been incremental." 

Kelly added that factoring in the military's concerns is important because it shows how improving educational outcomes for students touches every aspect of life in the Palmetto State.

Retired Army Gen. William Grimsley, secretary of the S.C. Department of Veterans' Affairs, agreed and said quality education and military readiness are connected.

"This is one of the things we want to work on and this is not the first time we've heard this," Grimsley told The Post and Courier. "It's a huge component for a service member when it comes to choosing where to stay or where to go after their term of service."

Outside of the Joint Base Charleston fences, there are several Charleston County and Berkeley County schools. Charleston County's Lambs Elementary, for example, is near the main gate of the Air Force and Navy installations. Compared to a school in more economically well-off Mount Pleasant, such as Belle Hall Elementary, it is underperforming. 

Only 40 percent of the students at Lambs were on track with academic subjects, compared with 70 percent at Belle Hall, according to South Carolina's education scorecard.  

Similarly, 43 percent of students at nearby Marrington Elementary School were on track academically, as compared with 60 percent of students at Mount Pleasant's Jennie Moore Elementary School.

While many schools in Summerville or Mount Pleasant may be superior to those directly outside Joint Base Charleston, many young service members with families simply don't have the financial resources to send their children to other schools in instances where they live near an installation, Greene said. 

"I have a lot of single parents who have kids," Greene said. "And so that single mom and dad who has kids can't drive their kid to a school of choice elsewhere in the state. And so they're left to live on base and live with the schools or those immediately adjacent to the base because they have no other options."

Grimsley said he plans to sit down with base leaders in the coming weeks to talk about solutions to fixing schools near bases. One such option could be redirecting federal dollars the state gets for schools and prioritizing those elementary, middle and high schools near military installations. 

Reach Thomas Novelly at 843-937-5713. Follow him @TomNovelly on Twitter. 

Thomas Novelly is a political reporter based in Charleston. He also covers the military community and veterans throughout South Carolina. Previously, he wrote for the Courier Journal in Kentucky. He is a fan of Southern rock, bourbon and horse racing.

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