Confirmed speaker, thanks to Steven Langer is Bud Ferillo on the Million Signatures Campaign for Equal Education Improvement in SC.
Bud’s Bio
Bud Ferillo is a native of Charleston and a graduate of Bishop England High School and the College of Charleston. He is a combat Vietnam veteran, having served as an infantry squad leader at the age of 22.
He was the Chief of Staff to two Speakers of the S.C. House of Representatives and Deputy Lieutenant Governor of SC in the second term of Governor Dick Riley.
At the age of 24, he began his involvement in public issues when he lead a floor fight at the State Democratic Convention in 1970 that ended the party's last segregationist party platform. That year, he managed US Congressman Jim Clyburn's first political campaign.
He founded his own public relations firm in 1987 and it has represented some of the state's most prestigious private industries, public institutions, nonprofit organizations, and numerous local governments.
In the year 2000, Bud coordinated Charleston Mayor Joe Riley's March to Columbia to remove the Confederate flag from the State House and, later that year led the campaign against the state lottery.
In 2004, Bud organized the March for Education Equity which brought 6,000 South Carolinians to the State House in support of the 36 rural school districts which had brought a lawsuit against the state of South Carolina for equitable funding.
In 2005, he produced and directed the documentary, CORRIDOR OF SHAME, which has won six national awards in the field of documentaries. In 2008, the documentary drew international and national attention to the problems of our rural schools during the South Carolina presidential primaries, leading to the support for education reforms in rural schools from President Barack Obama.
Today, Bud is leading a petition campaign for 1 million signatures in support of a Constitutional Amendment to establish the standard of "high quality education" to replace the state's current standard of "minimally adequate education".
