A controversial Pennsylvania billionaire will help about 700 low-income students stay in South Carolina private schools through December.
The state-funded voucher program they were relying on to pay tuition was struck down last month by the S.C. Supreme Court. After the end of the semester, funding for the students is unclear.
Jeff Yass, a Wall Street titan from Haverford, Penn., has reportedly showered more than $130 million on Republican candidates and causes since 2020. This week, he gave $900,000 to the right-of-center nonprofit Palmetto Promise Institute (PPI) for use as tuition assistance through the end of this semester, according to the organization.
PPI, which was led by Republican Ellen Weaver before she was elected to be the state’s superintendent of education in 2022, said it will have to raise additional funds to keep children enrolled for the rest of the school year.
“Jeff Yass wanted us to use his name and use this announcement to open doors for more donations,” PPI President and CEO Wendy Damron told Statehouse Report in an Oct. 17 interview. “He just really wanted to help these families and get this campaign for future donations moving.”
Donations will be used exclusively for tuition assistance, Damron added, with PPI covering all administrative and fundraising costs.
Yass, who reportedly owns a $21 billion stake in the video-sharing app TikTok, made headlines earlier this year when critics on both sides of the aisle accused him of “bullying” members of Congress to vote no on a forced sale of the Chinese-controlled company. Though the legislation ultimately passed, former President Donald Trump reversed his longtime support for the bill and lobbied against it after meeting with the GOP mega-donor at Mar-a-Lago in March.
TikTok is blocked on all state-owned devices in South Carolina by order of Gov. Henry McMaster, who has called it a foreign “threat” and a “clear and present danger to its users.” It was also often cited as a major problem that would be solved by the state’s new ban on cell phones in K-12 public schools.
Weaver, who reportedly received $750,000 in political support from Yass’s School Freedom Fund PAC during her hotly contested 2022 Republican primary campaign run-off against voucher opponent Kathy Maness, said she hoped the $900,000 donation would motivate others to give.
“I am profoundly grateful for this enormous gift of hope for students left out in the cold by the Supreme Court majority’s flawed decision,” Weaver said in a statement. “I remain committed to working with the governor and the General Assembly to urgently restore this worthy program to full impact, and I pray that even more generous donors will be inspired to stand in the gap for these children until then.”
The General Assembly is expected to take up new voucher legislation when it returns in January.
S.C.’s 2,000th historical marker dedicated in Chester
South Carolina’s latest historical marker – the state’s 2,000th – honors the role that Finley High School in Chester County played in educating generations of Black children during the darkest days of segregation and Jim Crow.
Founded in 1923 as Chester Colored High School, Finley High went on to serve as a so-called “equalization school” in the 1950s, when S.C. was following a “separate but equal” policy aimed at preempting federal desegregation orders. It is named after longtime principal Samuel Louis Finley Sr.
The historical marker was sponsored by S.L. Finley Restoration Association. According to the S.C. Department of Archives and History , it represents the 2000th such marker dedicated by the agency since 1936.
In a statement recognizing the milestone, the agency’s director called the state’s historic marker program “the oldest, most visible, and most popular form of historic preservation” in the state.
“The approval of the 2,000th state historical marker is a tangible reminder that for generations, South Carolinians have placed significant value on those historic sites that have shaped both them and their forebears,” W. Eric Emerson said.
- To learn more about the school and its history, visit the S.L. Finley Restoration Association website at slfinleyra70.org.
In other recent news
Dorchester County to host traveling Vietnam War memorial. A traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington D.C., “The Wall That Heals,” will be on display in Ridgeville through Oct. 20..
Clyburn worried about Project 2025’s potential effect on S.C. U.S. Rep. James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., recently told the Charleston City Paper that he fears the nation’s Electoral College is a potential barrier to a Harris-Walz victory, even if the Democratic team wins the popular presidential vote on Nov. 5.
S.C. book ban regulation in effect. Librarians say they enjoy support from students, parents and school colleagues, but feel attacked by policymakers and by strangers ranting on X, on private Facebook pages and in social media messages about alleged dark intentions.
Fewer S.C. high school graduates went to college this fall, state report finds. Fewer high schoolers enrolled in or applied for college this fall, even though the graduation rate for the Class of 2024 was slightly better than last year.
Early voting in S.C. kicks off on Oct. 21. Charleston County voters will be able to cast their ballots as early as next Monday through seven different early voting locations.
FEMA expands aid, opens S.C. centers to help those seeking disaster funds. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has opened Helene recovery centers at the Nancy Carson Library in North Augusta, Anderson County Library in Anderson, the Barnwell Regional Airport, the Freetown Community Center in Greenville and the Batesburg-Leesville Fire Station for people who want to sign up for aid in person rather than applying online or over the phone.
New coalition says rural S.C. towns need more banking options. State law doesn’t allow local governments to use credit unions, with limited exceptions.
Advisory group suggests restart of failed nuclear project. A nuclear advisory group created by the legislature is pushing for a study into restarting construction on a pair of nuclear reactors mothballed seven years ago as part of a failed nuclear power plant expansion in South Carolina.
What does a La Nina mean for S.C.? This fall, La Niña is slowly developing, and this shift in the pattern is expected to last at least through February 2025. Scientists are not expecting a strong La Niña event, but even a weak La Niña during winter could mean a different type of winter for the South.
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