THEIR VIEWS

It's time to have some rules for ATVs

At least 555 people, including 111 children, died riding all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) in 2006, according to The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Injuries related to ATVs for that same year totaled 146,600, up 10,000 from the year prior.

Last year about this time, we wrote on the subject, noting that the South Carolina legislature had attempted to institute laws that would better regulate ATV operation, especially for children. Yet the measure was vetoed by Gov. Mark Sanford, citing that ''the law would be difficult to enforce and would infringe on private property rights.''

At the very least, there should be limits on the age of an operator. We are both saddened and outraged to read stories such as this latest report from the newspaper in Rock Hill:

''A 7-year-old boy has died after the allterrain vehicle he was driving ran into the path of a tractor trailer at his grandparents' house in York County. The boy was wearing a helmet when he drove the fourwheeler down his grandparents' driveway and into the path of a passing pulpwood truck.''

The child, who would have been a firstgrader in a few days, didn't have a chance. But he should have. ...

As we said last year, if ATVs are operated properly and with safety precautions, as well as the benefit of a course on safe operation, whoever is willing to plunk down the cash (the ''youth'' model we mentioned cost around $2,600) is within his or her rights to own one.

But please, don't put a child in the driver's seat. You may live to regret it.

We're sure there is a devastated Rock Hill family that does.

(Anderson) Independent-Mail

This is a much overdue obligation

Developing a politically palatable new way to pay for South Carolina's public schools won't be easy. Otherwise, that assignment would already have been completed. But unless our elected leaders accomplish that arduous task, our state's education system will continue to be hamstrung by an outmoded funding format. This high-stakes job demands creativity, courage and compromise.

House Speaker Bobby Harrell, recognizing those needs, last year appointed a House committee to study school funding and to craft practical recommendations. ...

While legislators are understandably wary about producing a new funding system that riles large parts of the taxpaying public, Mr. Harrell emphasizes that the overriding consequence of failing to produce one means ''that we'll continue to distribute school funding money on a formula that makes absolutely no sense.''

Certainly it will be more difficult for South Carolina to improve public schools while carrying the unnecessary burden of an anachronistic funding format.

The 2008 legislative session, conducted during an election year, didn't address this pressing issue. The 2009 legislative session will do so only if lawmakers make the tough calls required to fulfill an overdue obligation.

The (Charleston) Post and Courier