Chapter 4: The Perennial Problem of Teacher Recruitment and Retention for Plaintiff Districts in Abbeville V. South Carolina

In 1993, almost half (n = 34) of South Carolina’s school districts at the time initiated a lawsuit against the state for inequitably and inadequately funding their schools. These districts were often neglected and forgotten, being located in the state’s most rural and economically impoverished areas along the I-95 corridor and educating large concentrations of students of color. The resulting legacy case, Abbeville v. South Carolina (2014), lasted almost 30 years. Although the Supreme Court of South Carolina initially ruled in favor of the plaintiff districts in 2014, the entire lawsuit was ultimately dismissed in 2017, leaving the plaintiffs’ districts with no judicial remedy to address their enduring woes.