Education Investment Becomes Top Concern for S.C. Businesses and Lawmakers

Investing in and improving the education system in South Carolina has been a critical issue for a long time – and it sits atop the Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce legislative agenda for 2019.

Education-centric efforts like improving student achievement, increasing teacher pay, and school safety have also jumped to the top of many lawmakers’ agendas. Among them, SC House Speaker Jay Lucas who has filed a wide-ranging bill in the State House. Lucas detailed his plan at a special Voice of Business Brunch during a stop in Spartanburg.

“It is at the top of our legislative agenda because talent is at the top of the business community’s agenda,” said Spartanburg Chamber President and CEO Allen Smith.

Teacher shortage and increasing teacher pay

The Spartanburg Chamber’s legislative agenda advocated for raising teacher pay to the Southeastern average within three years. Lucas said bumping the starting salary for a new teacher statewide to $35,000 per year may not sound like much, but the salary for an equally-qualified teacher was less than $30,000 per year just a few years ago.

“For the first time since 1969, parents are telling their children not to go into public education. That’s amazing to me,” he said. “To be in an era now where parents don’t want their children to teach, something’s got to change.”

Lucas said enthusiasm is key, both in working to improve the state’s education system and to recruit and retain teachers. A potential key to that could be a state program forgiving teachers’ student debt if they stay in the classroom for a sustained period of time.

Dispelling disturbing trends

In math, South Carolina is performing worse now than the state’s students did a decade ago, Lucas said.

“It’s been a fairly consistent decline. I’m concerned about that fact.”

Lucas said there used to be a belief that as long as Mississippi was around, South Carolina wouldn’t be last in education. Since Mississippi made increasing educational attainment its number one legislative goal, the state has surpassed South Carolina in test scores among fourth-graders regardless of ethnicity or socioeconomic status, Lucas said.

“If you’re someone who takes a great deal of pride in this state, that should make your blood boil and get the competitive juices flowing,” he said. “As a state, that can’t be acceptable, that can’t be where we want to be.”

A workforce issue

Lucas came at education reform from a workforce perspective after seeing that some 68,000 jobs – many in manufacturing – were unfilled at the end of 2018 across South Carolina.

“With that background, we launched into how we would help that, how we would fix that. What were some of the things at the technical school-level, with the four-year colleges and universities, to fix that. That background led me to look at what South Carolina could do.”

“More disturbing is that 32.7 percent, a third of all students, that when they graduate from high school across the state of South Carolina, about a third of our students aren’t ready for entry-level jobs when they go out of high school. Why are we at 68,000 jobs unfilled in December, and quite frankly, that’s why.”

Lucas said every level of education needs to work together to best prepare students for the workforce, either after high school, two years at a technical college or four years at a college or university.

Clear-eyed about the path ahead

Education reform has long been a goal in South Carolina. Lawmakers and community leaders across every region of the state know the issues that need to be addressed, and are determining the best way forward.

The 90-page bill filed by Lucas will inevitably see some changes, spurred from debates in Columbia and meetings like the one he held in Spartanburg, where residents can provide their feedback, their concerns and what they think the priorities should be.

“We want to make sure everyone has a voice in this,” said Rep. Rita Allison, chairwoman of the Committee on Education and Public Works.

Written by Zach Fox, Spartanburg Chamber.