Letters to the editor for Feb. 27

State should fund Catawba schools

The deal made between the Catawba Indian Nation and the Rock Hill school district in 1993 sounds suspiciously like one of the treaties made between European settlers and Native Americans in previous centuries. We all know how well those treaties worked out for Native Americans.

At first, I blamed the school district for taking advantage of the tribe. But then I thought about South Carolina’s history of manipulating public education funding to avoid integration. Now I believe the state should repay the remaining $4.5 million that the school district says the tribe owes them for educating Catawba Nation children.

Our legislators could agree to pay this debt as a small step toward recognizing the state’s mistreatment of Native Americans and failure to fully fund the public schools that should serve them.

Throughout our state’s history, native tribes entered into misguided agreements with settlers that left the tribes disadvantaged or worse. Catawba Indians may have coexisted peacefully with local settlers, but at what cost to the tribe?

They have lost far too much already, and I would argue that at the very least the state should assume a debt that will likely bankrupt South Carolina’s only federally recognized tribe.

Charging the Catawba Indian Nation to educate children who live on the reservation is just plain wrong, and the school district must have been really desperate for cash to make such a bad deal. Unfortunately, the state may lose an important part of its heritage unless it steps in and meets its obligation to educate all S.C. children, including those who happen to live on a reservation.

It’s time for South Carolina to assume the Catawba Nation’s “debt” and finally commit to the full funding and integration of its public schools.

Alexa Maddox

Fort Mill

Liberals control media, colleges

Folks, we have allowed the atheist and socialist Democrats to take over our higher education, newspapers and other media.

This presidential election showed how out of touch they are with real Americans except for California. Our local Winthop University is a perfect example. They only release polls that are generally negative to a Republicans and positive to Democrats.

Then our ultra-liberal newspaper prints any poll negative to Republicans on its front page. All this in a county that went heavily for Trump. We need to continue to elect conservative representatives to fight these distortions and get our education system back to a moral and responsible place for our young people to attend.

Larry Carter

York

This story was originally published February 26, 2017 at 5:47 PM with the headline "Letters to the editor for Feb. 27."