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Education

Education

Find content about education in South Carolina.

  • The University of South Carolina will unveil a statue in 2024 on the Horseshoe that will honor the first three Black students to enroll at the state's flagship college.
    Maayan Schechter
    The University of South Carolina will unveil a 12-foot bronze monument in 2024 that will honor the first three Black students to enroll at the university on Sept. 11, 1963.
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    Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages
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    The Verbatim Agency
    For the last twenty years, school choice advocates have been pushing to enact a law that would allow parents to use state tax dollars to send their children to private or religious schools. Public school supporters have long resisted the idea claiming such a program would hurt public schools.This year the Republican controlled General Assembly appears to be on the verge of establishing a school-voucher program.
  • The State House of Representatives this week voted overwhelmingly to replace and restructure the University of South Carolina’s governing board. The 113 to one vote follows a growing lack of confidence by many lawmakers in the current Board of Trustees. Those trustees are elected by the legislature, but botched presidential searches, million dollar payoffs to fired coaches, and public spats with some of the college’s largest donors led to the action on the bill.
  • South Carolina Democrats lined up more than 1,000 amendments in a symbolic attempt to delay a vote on a bill that would ban transgender students from playing girls' or women's sports in public schools and colleges. Between the four boxes of amendments and a tornado warning that evacuated the chamber, they stretched Tuesday's debate for nearly seven hours. But the Republican majority won, passing the bill on an 82-28 vote about 9:15 p.m. The legislation would require athletes to compete with the gender listed on their birth certificates. About a dozen states have already passed similar legislation. The bill needs one more routine approval before heading to the state Senate.
  • The South Carolina Senate is debating a bill that would give some poorer or disabled students money so they could pick a private school or public school outside their district. The bill provides up to $6,000 in state money each year. Along with tuition, the money could also go toward textbooks, materials, education services or equipment for disabled students. The program would be limited to students whose family income is low enough to make them eligible for Medicaid and students with disabilities. The program would be limited to 15,000 students. Opponents say the money could be better spent improving public schools for all.
  • School is supposed to teach kids a thing or two. Pandemic-era schooling's mix of in-class and in-home learning, however, taught them something people don't usually figure out until a lot later – who they really are. Part of South Carolina Public Radio's occasional series 'diSConnected.'
  • A national nonprofit is giving more than $650,000 in grants to help five historically Black colleges and universities to help preserve their campuses. The National Trust for Historic Preservation this week announced the grants through its HBCU Cultural Heritage Stewardship Initiative. The Washington-based trust aims to help the institutions develop campus preservation plans. The grants are going to Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida; Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi; Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina; Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina; and Voorhees College in Denmark, South Carolina.
  • After an investigation into hazing, a Clemson University fraternity has been suspended for four years for violating the university's code of conduct. The Greenville News reports that a probe into the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity revealed hazing incidents that occurred last February. School officials say the incidents involved acts of personal servitude by new members and included "line-ups, berating, morally degrading behavior."
  • The U.S. Department of Agriculture has added eight states to the 19 where students receiving Medicaid coverage will be automatically added to the program offering free or reduced-price school lunches. A news release Tuesday says those states are Alabama, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
  • South Carolina Education Superintendent Molly Spearman says she won't run for a third term. Spearman said Wednesday after 40 years of service as a teacher, lawmaker and education official she wants to devote more time to her family. The 67-year-old superintendent says she plans to keep working to get education out of problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and advocate for students and teachers until her replacement is sworn into office in January 2023. A Republican, Spearman often clashed with lawmakers and others in her party. But she also pushed them toward her key issues — raising teacher pay and their morale, improving education standards, replacing school buses and helping smaller districts get more state support.
  • South Carolina's Supreme Court has ruled lawmakers can try to prevent local school districts from requiring masks in classrooms. But the ruling is trumped by a federal court decision two days ago that suspended the ban because federal law trumps state law. The state Supreme Court ruling Thursday does say districts can both require masks and follow the state rule if they can find a way to not spend state money enforcing the wearing of face coverings. The federal ruling says the South Carolina Legislature's ban on mask requirements discriminates against medically fragile students who can't feel safe in public schools without face coverings.
  • The leader of South Carolina's schools says districts now have the authority to require masks in the classroom. State Education Superintendent Molly Spearman wrote the memo Wednesday, a day after a federal judge ruled with the parents of disabled students who said a state ban on mask mandates discriminated against them during the COVID-19 pandemic. The temporary restraining order went into effect immediately. Republicans Gov. Henry McMaster and state Attorney General Alan Wilson promised to appeal the suspension of the provision in the budget passed by the Republican-dominated Legislature. Spearman's memo says districts should consult their lawyers to make sure they give medically fragile students the accommodations they need.