By Lindsay Street, Statehouse correspondent | Educators in South Carolina bogged down by paperwork soon could see some relief.
A joint resolution in the state Senate will require the state Department of Education to develop recommendations for reducing and streamlining the amount of paperwork and reporting required of teachers, schools, and school districts. It’s aimed at helping teachers stay on the job — a key component in a state where thousands have fled the profession.
“We have an incredible burden with paperwork,” Hand Middle School teacher Dottie Adams of Columbia told Statehouse Report this week. Adams is a board member with the grassroots organization pushing betterment for teachers in the state, SCforEd.
The third and final reading for S. 168 is expected when the Senate convenes 2 p.m. Tuesday. So far, the resolution has not incurred any debate. The sponsor, Senate Education Chair Sen. Greg Hembree, R-Horry, said he expects it to pass without much discussion. From there, it will need to be reviewed and passed by the House before heading the governor’s desk.
If passed, the state Department of Education is expected to come up with recommendations to the legislature by Jan. 15, 2020. According to a Revenue of Fiscal Affairs Office report dated Jan. 15, the resolution should not create any additional expense since the state Department of Education is already working towards the provisions of the resolution with their current data governance and monitoring processes.
The resolution was originally introduced in 2018 as part of the state’s annual budget. Hembree said it ended up getting slashed when the budget went into a joint compromise committee.
Other machinations
No other K-12 education bill is expected to pass either body next week, but there will be plenty of work in committees. Lawmakers have identified 2019 as the year of education.
On Thursday, House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Hartsville, introduced a major education reform package. House Education and Public Works Committee member Rep. Lin Bennett, R-Charleston, said she expects the committee to begin work next week.
The massive 84-page reform package H. 3759 includes:
- Merging school districts that have fewer than 1,000 students, and dissolving school districts with multiple years of failing scores;
- Increasing salaries of first-year teachers by $3,000 (bringing them up to $35,000), phasing in a 10 percent raise for all teachers and replacing step increases with “career bands” that would reward teachers for their duties and performance;
- Eliminating some state-standardized tests in elementary schools; and,
- Publishing teacher satisfaction surveys of their schools and leadership there. Read more here.
Hembree introduced a similar bill, S. 419, in the Senate.
Lucas and his staff did not respond to requests seeking comment for this story. The ideas in the bill were similar to those laid out by Gov. Henry McMaster in his State of the State address Wednesday.
On Thursday, state Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman released a statement in support of Lucas’ overhaul: “I want to applaud the media for continuing to shine a light on these issues and express my sincere appreciation to Speaker Lucas, Governor McMaster, and our General Assembly for putting these overdue and significant education reforms at the top of the agenda this year,” Spearman wrote in the statement. “I look forward to continuing to work together to pass the legislation needed for change so that our students can have the brightest future possible.”
Pay and performance
Adams, a middle school teacher, said she was worried about the Lucas bill’s language tying teacher pay to performance as well as a proposal for an education czar reporting to the governor (she said this would create duplicity with a voter-elected state superintendent). She added, however, that she did not have time to fully review the reform package.
Adams, her organization and the Palmetto State Teachers Association have pushed for a 10 percent pay increase for teachers in the state. The S.C. Education Association has advocated for a 5 percent pay raise. So far, introduced bills have included salary increases ranging from 5 to 20 percent, and another calls for bringing up the base teacher pay to $50,000 per year.
“We would definitely like to see that language (of salary increases) and that pushed by members of both the House and Senate as a sign that this is really the year of education and they are willing to support teachers in the classroom,” Adams said.
Consolidation
Merging districts is already on the docket in Senate Education Committee, and Hembree said it should be a heated discussion during next week’s meeting.
“There are people who feel very passionately about that concept or passionately against it,” he said. The meeting will take place Wednesday.
Adams said many other bills on her radar. She identified two in particular:
- S. 240 is in the Senate Education Committee. Introduced by Sen. Mike Fanning, D-Fairfield, the bill allows school districts to start earlier than the third Monday in August, which is currently mandated. Adams said this bill would allow high school teachers and students to finish their semesters prior to the winter break. She called it a “no brainer” bill that is nonpartisan and doesn’t cost any money.
- H. 3215 is in the House Education and Public Works Committee. Introduced by Rep. Neal Collins, R-Pickens, the bill would prevent school districts from retaliating against educators making public policy expressions or advocating for their profession. Adams said that while teachers like her and the organization are not against their school districts, “sometimes that gets misconstrued.”
“We at SCforEd, we are trying to be unifiers,” she said. “We need to come together as a state and make education a priority for every student and every school district.”
House Education and Public Works Chair Rep. Rita Allison, R-Spartanburg, did not respond to requests seeking comment.
- Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!
Now to figure out how to sustain this beyond one year.