South Carolina dad David Warner is afraid to tell his sixth-grade son that he will have to leave his school, teachers, and friends because the state Supreme Court struck down the Palmetto State’s school voucher program.
“Today definitely felt like a kick in the stomach,” Warner said.
Read More
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster ceremonially signed a pair of “child safety” measures on Wednesday, including one mandating age verification on websites with sexually explicit content.
H. 3424, the Child Online Safety Act, mandates that sites with at least one-third of their content being “obscene material” enforce an age verification system starting Jan. 1, 2025. This would ostensibly bar users under 18 from accessing the site’s material.
Read More
The South Carolina Senate passed a measure to exempt feminine care products from the state’s sales tax, a move that could cost the state and local governments millions in tax revenue.
The Senate voted unanimously in favor of H.3563, which now heads to Republican Gov. Henry McMaster for consideration. The state House unanimously passed the bill last year.
Read More
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster signed a measure that aims to help landowners use voluntary conservation easements to preserve working agricultural lands.
H. 3951, the Working Agricultural Lands Preservation Act, creates the Working Farmland Protection Fund within the South Carolina Conservation Bank. The measure ostensibly complements the agricultural projects the bank funds by establishing a matching grant payment for qualified projects.
Read More
Gov. Henry McMaster signed a measure to help ensure students read at their appropriate grade levels.
S. 418 builds on the Read to Succeed measure lawmakers passed a decade ago and requires the South Carolina Department of Education to implement a “scientifically based reading instruction” approach to reading education. The program includes professional development, administering universal screeners and summer reading camps.
Read More
A new report shows that schools nationwide, including in South Carolina, are having trouble filling teacher positions, with salaries being a primary cause.
An analysis from MyElearningWorld.com found that new teachers nationwide earn nearly 20% less than they did about two decades ago, taking inflation into account. South Carolina’s findings align with the national findings, with Palmetto State teachers earning 22% less.
Read More
South Carolina lawmakers are debating a roughly $40 billion fiscal 2024-25 state budget that anticipates more than $12 billion in state general funds and billions more in federal money.
Last month, the South Carolina Board of Economic Advisors voted to keep the fiscal 2023-24 revenue forecast estimate at nearly $12.9 billion and the fiscal 2024-25 revenue forecast estimate at more than $13.2 billion.
Read More
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster ceremonially signed a measure mandating the state’s retirement system to consider only “pecuniary factors” when making investment decisions.
H.3690, the ESG Pension Protection Act, effectively bans the South Carolina Retirement System Investment Commission from weighing environmental, social and governance factors and orders the system to maximize the highest rate of return for beneficiaries. The state House passed the measure by a 103-5 margin, while the state Senate passed it 45-0.
Read More