By Lindsay Street, Statehouse correspondent | South Carolina uses a winning strategy among its peers when it comes to driving the automobile industry into the state, according to a new report through the Brookings Institute.
The case study on Upstate South Carolina, “Rethinking Clusters Initiatives, highlights how South Carolina focused on creating automotive engineering talent through public education and encouraged industry-relevant research at its public institutions. An excerpt:
“Business attraction-led cluster development is a somewhat risky strategy—as many bets on individual firms end up failing—but South Carolina’s decision has paid off because of local and state investments in workforce training, supplier development, applied research, transportation and logistics infrastructure, and smart branding and promotion that have helped sustain and grow the automotive cluster over time.”
Other recent news:
Goodbye, snow days. An Upstate school district has become the first in the state to implement a new online learning program to eliminate inclement weather days. Anderson County School District 5 will make use of its Chromebook program and require students to attend online class when weather makes it too dangerous for them to physically attend school. Read more.
Education gaps between races in S.C. The Charleston area’s education system widely favors its white population, according to a new report released by WalletHub. The report looks at how well educated citizens are of top metropolitan areas, but also highlighted racial and gender gaps. Charleston ranked 115th and Columbia ranked 130th for quality of education and attainment gap, a metric that included quality of public schools, quality of public universities, summer learning opportunities per capita, gender education gap, and racial education gap. Myrtle Beach ranked 14th and Greenville ranked 77th. Read the report here.
Winning on wine. South Carolina has the 18th highest wine taxes in the nation at $1.08 per gallon, according to a new report from Tax Foundation. But pop the cork and celebrate that you’re not in Kentucky, where the state levies $3.47 per gallon. The lowest rates are found in California and Texas at $0.20 per gallon. Read the report here.
Precinct-by-precinct look at 2016 election. By now we’ve all seen which congressional districts were red and blue in the 2016 election, but The New York Times is offering a more detailed look. The map goes precinct-by-precinct, showing how voters cast ballots in the 2016 presidential election. Click here to see the map.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!