Speaker's background influences push for education reform

HARTSVILLE, S.C. (AP) — The powerful Republican legislator leading the charge this year on improving South Carolina's public schools knows firsthand that education is key to lifting children out of poverty.

House Speaker Jay Lucas, 61, grew up in rural Darlington County, where his grandfather worked at the Sonoco paper mill and his father was the first in his family to earn a high school diploma.

Like many of their generation in the agrarian Pee Dee, Lucas' grandparents didn't get past sixth grade. His grandpa walked to his job as a night watchman.

Not wanting to join his dad at the mill, Bobby Lucas joined the Army instead and fought in the Korean War, knowing the GI Bill was his only way to go to college.