When I picked up Sunday’s edition of my hometown newspaper, The State, I was greeted with a headline that read, “Ex-senator vents on state’s schools, politics.” Former U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings, who retired four years ago, was lamenting that decades after he helped move the first 3-cent state sales tax through the South Carolina Legislature, “here we’ve got little Ty’Sheoma in Dillon, 50 years later, still begging for a decent school.” Hollings expressed embarrassment over her letter seeking “federal help to rebuild aging J.V. Martin Junior High she attends because South Carolina has dallied so long in upgrading its education system.”

All South Carolinians should be embarrassed by the conditions that precipitated Ty’Sheoma Bethea’s cries, but I, for one, was not embarrassed by her letter. To the contrary, I was buoyed by her bold initiative, and I was extremely pleased by the response of President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama at the joint address before Congress last week.

Dillon County is bisected by Interstate 95, which runs for 200 miles through South Carolina, and has been dubbed “the corridor of shame.” Two-thirds of that corridor lies in the 6th Congressional District that I proudly represent. The J.V. Martin school is not an anomaly. Unfortunately, the conditions at J.V. Martin are all too common along that corridor.

I, and many members of Congress, hear cries for help like Ty’Sheoma’s every time we visit our districts. Most of us have tried to respond as best we can, personally and politically. We hold town meetings, workshops and seminars to impart information and improve communities. We sponsor internships, fellowships and scholarships to provide individual assistance through various public and private entities. But to really improve conditions, our responses need to be at least as bold as Ty’Sheoma’s initiative.

I think it is instructive that although Obama visited her school during his presidential campaign, Ty’Sheoma addressed her letter “Dear Congress of the United States.” It’s her congressman who visits her school, attends her family reunion and participates in local parades. She has been taught by school officials and counseled by family and friends to write her congressman to address her concerns, and we are constitutionally and dutybound to respond. I do not believe that a canned referral to an administrative agency run by a faceless bureaucrat is an effective, or even proper, response.

If I could, I would have dedicated some of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to replacing schools and upgrading communities along the corridor of shame. I would have done so under the new “transparency and accountability” rules instituted by Democrats in the last Congress, just as I did to further develop the Lake Marion Regional Water Agency at the 98-mile marker on the I-95 corridor. It was an earmark for which I was criticized, but because of it, a $600 million investment was recently announced that will create an initial 3,000 jobs in an area that has suffered double-digit unemployment for as long as I can remember.

Unfortunately, Ty’Sheoma and her classmates are at the mercy of a governor whose political ideology makes him reluctant to provide the help they need. He has been allocated millions, but the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act effectively replaces congressional earmarks with gubernatorial earmarks. So Gov. Mark Sanford is free to do whatever he pleases for whoever pleases him.

Because of Ty’Sheoma’s actions, and national attention, J.V. Martin may get some much-needed attention, but what about other schools along the I-95 corridor: Bamberg-Ehrhardt, which needs to replace a 60-year-old roof, or Lafayette Academy in New Orleans? Who will be Ty’Sheoma for these schools? Their teachers, students and parents send representatives to Congress expecting them to address their needs and concerns as they pursue their dreams and aspirations.

I trust Obama to make the right investments in education, access to health care, energy independence and American ingenuity to lead the country on the path toward recovery. But I believe that lawmakers who were elected by the people they live among, and who see firsthand the day-to-day challenges their neighbors face, should play a role in directing some of those federal investments.

In the past decade, earmarks quadrupled and the word “earmark” became a bad word because of a few bad actors. But we have dramatically reformed the process, reducing earmarks to less than 1 percent of discretionary spending and instituting openness, transparency and accountability so we can discourage, expose and properly punish the bad guys. Those with a political agenda will demonize congressionally directed spending, but to me, it’s an appropriate answer to Ty’Sheoma’s letter and a proper response to schools such as J.V. Martin and communities along the corridor of shame.

Published in Politico 3/6/2009