South Carolina

Funding priorities1 for p-12 and/or higher education

House Bill 4000² was ratified by the South Carolina General Assembly on May 2019 and was enacted one month later. Governor McMaster expressed that attention to the base student cost and instructional materials would have a positive impact on public education, and that these areas, "[c]oupled with new teachers... would help close education gaps in subjects like reading, writing and math–each essential to ensuring students are able to join, and find success in, tomorrow's workforce."³ Several areas of funding priorities are discussed below.

• • Teacher Salaries: Responding to mounting pressure to increase teacher pay, from multiple stakeholders including teachers and supporters involved in a statewide teacher walkout rally in front of the State House on May 1, 2019, the State Legislature ratified a $159 million allocation for a 4% increase in teacher salaries and increased beginning teachers' minimum salary to $35,000 per year.⁴

• • Base Student Cost: After the high-profile state supreme court case Abbeville v. South Carolina shed light on the conditions of rural, low-income schools across the state, the Governor visited applicable schools, noting that "current resources [were] inadequate."⁵ As have been requested in previous budgets, McMaster called for an additional $10 to be added to the base student cost, raising the amount to $2,495 per pupil, but the final ratified bill included an increase of just $4 which put the final base student cost at $2,489.⁶ The ratified bill allocated a total of $15 million to be added to student cost funding as a portion of the state aid to classrooms.

• • Capital Improvements: The budget allocated a nonrecurring $55.8 million for school district capital improvements.⁷ Additionally, smaller portions of state funds allowed for shingled roof replacement, paving of parking lots and roads, elevator repair, and capital improvement for a charter school.

• • School Resource Officers (SROs): The Education Improvement Act appropriated $10 million to be used for SROs.⁸

• • School Buses: General lottery appropriations supported over $19 million for the purchase or lease of school buses.⁹ In addition, all unclaimed prizes of the general lottery in excess of $19 million were to be allocated towards lease or purchase of school buses.

• • Instructional Materials: Customarily, the state lottery has appropriated approximately $20 million for instructional materials per fiscal year.¹⁰ Excess funds from the previous year's certification could be allocated toward instructional materials after other pre-determined categories were satisfied.

Changes to funding formula for p-12 and/or higher education

There have been no recent substantive changes to the funding formula, but public discontent with school funding in the wake of Abbeville v. South Carolina and the statewide teacher walkouts, remain present.

Pressing state issues affecting p-12 and/or higher education

While there have been continuing talks about overhaling Act 388 (a law that removed owner-occupied, residential property valuation from school operations taxation), there were no substantive changes made. As mentioned, a historical teacher protest took place in May.¹¹ Although South Carolina lacks the assemblage of a state teachers' union, thousands of educators and supporters gathered at the state capital to communicate their outrage at the condition of South Carolina public education. Teachers questioned legislators' agenda for public education, likely planted by initiatives that redirects funds away from the traditional public education classroom, such as a private school voucher program. The protest was rooted in a demand for higher wages, smaller classroom sizes, and other changes to teacher working conditions. Allocations promoted by the bill align with the desires requested by teachers.

Exclusive to p-12: forces diverting funds from traditional public school districts and/or exclusive to higher education: trends in state funding for public institutions

About $12.8 million was allocated for public charter schools due to increased enrollment.¹² The executive budget stated that "rampant spending has resulted in skyrocketing tuition rates at [South Carolina] institutions of higher learning."¹³ In an effort to ease the cost of higher education, the budget allocated in-state tuition mitigation which...