Education

A robust and effective public education system is essential to advancing South Carolinians and making them competitive in today’s global workforce.  The public education system should also be complemented by an equally strong and robust private, parochial, home, and charter school system so as to ensure the next generation can access delivery best suited for their individual and family needs.

We must reward teachers of impact and remove bureaucratic obstacles that reduce their time actually teaching. We must encourage public education to innovate, demand parental or guardian involvement, and enforce discipline.

Ever increasing funding is not the solution to ineffective schools.  Today, the average amount spent educating a single student in SC is over $15,000 per year. Some districts spend in excess of $24,000 per student while producing poor results. We must correct the flawed funding formulas that disproportionately overcompensate some districts at the expense of others. Further, we must remove the financial handcuffs placed on our schools by programmatic funding and instead, provide flexibility for schools to use funds where they can best improve student access and performance. And we must hold districts accountable.

Technology must be utilized to ensure that quality education is delivered to rural communities. In a world where surgeries can be performed remotely from across the globe, there is no reason why world class teachers can not provide lessons in rural schools.

We must also recognize that the jobs of tomorrow are often accessed through non-traditional degree and certificate programs. Therefore the SC technical college system is well positioned to serve these industries and the workforce they need. Our commitment to higher education begins here.