S.C. Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver has declared a state-of-education emergency in the Jasper County School District (JCSD). She will ask the state Board of Education on Aug. 5 for permission to dissolve the local school board and assume full control of the long-troubled district.

What’s happening in Jasper County isn’t unique. It’s a growing trend in areas with high poverty, low tax bases and fewer people. Since 2017, state regulators have swooped in to take partial or full control of rural schools in Allendale, Florence, Marlboro and Williamsburg and counties — with the partial Marlboro takeover occurring only about two weeks prior to Weaver’s current request.

And while no one contacted this week by Statehouse Report was critical of Weaver or her predecessor, former S.C.

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