INSIDE ISSUE 19.05 | Jan. 31, 2020
BIG STORY: Senate could look at ‘school choice’ in education debate
NEWS BRIEFS: Lawmaker says S.C.’s towns can solve broadband issue
COMMENTARY, Brack: Let’s build hope by talking more about our differences
SPOTLIGHT: ACLU of South Carolina
MY TURN: 5 tips to protect your tax refund from fraudsters
FEEDBACK: Uplifting message on your teacher
Senate could look at ‘school choice’ in education debate
By Lindsay Street, Statehouse correspondent | The S.C. Senate is expected to continue a debate on an omnibus education package next week, entering into floor challenges on school starting time and private school vouchers.
Hours after teachers convened at the Statehouse on Wednesday, senators said no to an amendment that would have established a Teacher Bill of Rights that offered legal action for violations after days of debating the proposal.
The final version of the Teacher Bill of Rights in the Senate’s education bill, S. 419, looks similar to the House’s original version in its education package.. It creates a list of rights that school districts should aim for but offers no legal recourse for teachers.
Senate Education Chair Greg Hembree, R-North Myrtle Beach, and Isle of Palms Republican Sen. Chip Campsen were among the majority opposing making it legally actionable.
“I agree with all those statements (to be aspirational) but as far as having a cause of action flow from those principles that could be problematic,” he told Statehouse Report.
Hembree said it will keep “dollars in the classroom instead of the courtroom.”
Former teacher and Great Falls Democratic Sen. Mike Fanning said the Senate “slapped teachers in the face and flipped them off” when it came to the bill of rights.
“The Senate does not want teachers to have these rights,” he said.
S.C. Education Association President Sherry East said making the rights actionable is “the whole point” of protecting teachers and giving them autonomy over their classrooms.
Another amendment this week expanded scholarships to education majors in an effort to increase teacher recruitment.
Moving on
Now, the Senate is moving onto other sticking points in the education debate. According to Hembree, senators on Tuesday will address some smaller issues in the bill, which remains on special order without a super-majority vote to get to other bills on the Senate calendar.
Hembree said he expects the issue of earliest start date for school in the summer to come up again Wednesday. Currently, state law requires schools to start before the third Monday in August, and the bill seeks to change that to the second Monday in August. Some arguing for an earlier start time or allowing local control say schools struggle to get in the required instructional time before winter break in South Carolina.
Fanning said he expects an amendment that would allow local control over when to start school.
Another big issue next week could be school choice, Hembree said. Beaufort Republican Sen. Tom Davis told The State earlier this month he would push for an amendment that would offer public assistance to low-income students for attending private schools, much like the state’s current voucher program for students with disabilities.
East told Statehouse Report that should private school vouchers become a part of the big bill, the organization will join grassroots SCforEd in its calls for killing the bill.
Meanwhile in the House
The S.C. House of Representatives is set to pass next week a standalone bill seeking to establish a Teacher Bill of Rights. The bill has similar aspirational language that does not include legal action steps like the Senate’s amendment.
On Thursday the House unanimously voted for second reading on House Bill 4753, one of the many standalone bills House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Hartsville, plans to send the Senate in an attempt to repair pieces stripped from the original House education bill passed in 2019.
“Desire for additional support from school administration, more uninterrupted planning time, less unnecessary paperwork and a competitive salary are just a few of the top issues I heard directly from teachers time and time again,” Lucas said in a statement. “The teachers of our state have been talking, and we have been listening. I am confident that this bill is a good first step to ensuring some of the top concerns of our teachers are heard and addressed.”
After second reading on Thursday, the House gave unanimous consent for third reading when session reconvenes Tuesday. Its fate is unclear with the Senate’s added language in S. 419.
Co-sponsor and Greenville Republican Rep. Ashley Trantham said there will be more such standalone education bills from the House.
“This is one of many youre going to see that we’re going to send through. It’s in an attempt to get something. If we wait for (the Senate) to finish what they’re doing … we’re going to end up getting nothing or it’s going to take so much time,” she said.
Trantham added: “We have teachers sitting here watching and hoping they’re going to get some relief.”
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Lawmaker says S.C.’s towns can solve broadband issue
By Lindsay Street, Statehouse correspondent | A Bamberg lawmaker is seeking to repeal 2012 legislation that, he says, effectively ended competition and keeps rural South Carolina from accessing faster internet.
“Internet is an absolute necessity today. Rural South Carolina demands equality,” Democratic Rep. Justin Bamberg said in a press release. “We already fight daily with 20-year-old cell phone signals of ‘1X’ or no service at all when other areas of the state have 5G cell phone data speeds. We will no longer tolerate being cut off from the world both inside and outside of our own homes.”
Introduced Jan. 21, House Bill 4993 would authorize and regulate local government-owned broadband internet access service providers, overturning a 2012 state ban. So far, he is the only sponsor.
- For more information on telecommunication companies and their fight against municipal-level broadband, click here.
Local governments would then be allowed to create or contract with private companies to create their own local internet service providers.
“Internet providers keep giving us the same empty promises year after year. It is time to give rural communities modern internet access,” Bamberg said. “This legislation will also benefit those in urban areas where large companies dominate the market due to limited service area competition such that costs of even basic internet service has unreasonably continued to balloon.”
So far this session, the House already passed a bill that seeks to use state funds to improve broadband access. House Bill 3780 calls for a broadband fund and provide that any provide that municipalities can lease property to broadband providers. It is now in the Senate Judiciary committee and not currently scheduled for a hearing.
The state is also receiving federal funds to expand rural access. In a series intended to improve internet connectivity in South Carolina, the state has received $9.75 million for expanding access in Orangeburg County and $8.1 million for expanding access in Charleston and Berkeley counties. Under the Reconnect Program, the state could see more money this year.
In other news:
Two McMaster nominations withdrawn. An 83-year-old law has led to Greenville Republican Rep. Bobby Cox to withdraw his nomination to lead the newly-formed Veterans’ Affair Office, and tax woes have sunk the nomination of North Charleston Police Chief Reggie Burgess to lead the S.C. Department of Public Safety. Both nominees announced their withdrawal Thursday. Cox said he would comply with state law, and Burgess said that while his unpaid taxes were paid in full in 2018, the stress on his family has led him to withdraw. Read more.
Senate panel gives favorable report to microplastics study. A bill that directs state agencies to conduct research on microplastic contamination in South Carolina will advance to the full Senate Medical Affairs Committee. On Thursday, a subcommittee unanimously gave a favorable report on the bill, S. 1023, which was reported as part of a green package by Camden Democratic Sen. Vincent Sheheen last week.
- Previous coverage: As municipalities balk at plastics industry, state agencies continues to woo.
Thank goodness for … South Carolina? Mississippi has surpassed South Carolina on some education rankings, and House Speaker Jay Lucas invited the state’s superintendent to address lawmakers Thursday. Lawmakers are looking to model public education after the state that was formerly behind South Carolina in educational outcomes. Read more.
Senate proposes rule change on earmarks. After a report of $37 million in the state budget going to local projects, the Senate has advanced a proposal that would require lawmakers to attach their names to earmarked budget requests, along with the amount requested. Read more.
Attorney general sues Columbia over gun laws. S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson filed a lawsuit Wednesday in the state Supreme Court against the city of Columbia over its gun-related ordinances. Read more.
Bill allowing beer sales curbside moves forward. A state Senate committee has sent a bill to the floor that would allow those using a grocery shopping service to pick up goods curbside to also buy wine and beer. But Columbia Democratic Sen. Dick Harpootlian says the bill as it stands would not be enforced and could encourage underage drinking. Read more.
Public Service Commission to seek candidates through Feb. 28. The State Public Utilities Review Committee has reopened its search for candidates for utility regulating body S.C. Public Service Commission after it found 11 of 17 candidates unqualified. The new deadline to apply is Feb. 28. Click here for application information.
Santee Cooper gets setback in fight to charge customers. A state judge has rejected state public utility Santee Cooper’s request to stop a case challenging its ability to charge customers billions more for an unfinished nuclear plant project. The trial date is set for April 20. Read more. In related news: While the S.C. Department of Administration declined to give Statehouse Report a timeline of when to expect its report on bids for the utility, some lawmakers say they are expecting the report next week.
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Let’s build hope by talking more about our differences
Mary Beth Meehan, Seeing Newnan. Newnan, Georgia 2019 from Duo Pictures/David DelPoio on Vimeo.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said something a couple of weeks back that’s been circling through my brain:
“Look, I have this firm belief that if America hasn’t broken your heart, you don’t love her enough.”
My heart is breaking as our nation is being torn apart in ways never imagined by founding fathers and leaders of the country for 200 years.
My heart is breaking as too many Americans find it acceptable for a president to lie routinely, to threaten, to intimidate like a schoolyard bully.
Mh heart breaks as too many of America’s political leaders lack the courage to hold a president accountable for unconscionable, immoral behavior.
My heart breaks as so many continue to get left behind as the haves have more.
My heart breaks as fundamental American precepts of liberty, truth, justice and the common good are trampled upon with reckless abandon.
My heart breaks when today’s headlines, rallies and tweets often recall simmering hate, vitriol, fear, racism and hopelessness that marked the American South for generations.
If you read the memoir “Just Mercy” or watch the new movie with the same title, it’s not difficult to draw parallels between declining societal conditions now and what existed just three decades ago when Alabama attorney Bryan Stevenson started trying to free people on death row thought to have been illegally convicted.
Stevenson, who leads the Equal Justice Institute, has concluded through the years that the poverty that so many Southerners find themselves unable to escape has an opposite But it’s not building wealth. Poverty’s opposite, he says, is justice.
“We’ve all been acculturated into accepting the inevitability of wrongful convictions, unfair sentences, racial bias, and racial disparities and discrimination against the poor,” he said in a December 2015 interview. “I think hopelessness is the enemy of justice. We have too many insiders who become hopeless about what they can do.”
It wasn’t too long ago that a relatively unknown U.S. senator from Illinois became president on a campaign fueled by hope, iconically depicted by Charleston-born artist Shepard Fairey. So if what’s going on across the country now is loss of hope, a loss of justice and truth and the American way, what can we do to recapture hope?
Perhaps we can take a page from a community photography project from Newnan, Ga., a town 40 miles southwest of Atlanta that has become far more diverse in the last two decades. Two years ago, a rally by white nationalists fizzled when organizers apparently didn’t realize the community had changed, according to a must-read Jan. 19 story in The New York Times. A year later, Newnan installed 17 banner-sized portraits of residents, from a jewel-wearing white doyenne and Baptist preacher to people of color and a pair of Muslim sisters.
To say that the exhibit sparked conversation appears to be an understatement. It forced Newnan to look at itself — something that every town in South Carolina should strive to do. The portraits in Newnan by photographer Mary Beth Meehan will come down in June, but continue to inspire, as related by a Presbyterian pastor: “The truth is, these conversations are hard and uncomfortable and awkward, but we need to lean into it. We need to talk about who lives in our community and if they are different, why does that make us uncomfortable?”
Amen. In times when armchair computer warriors spew venom online to divide America, we must invest in the hard work to talk more, not less. We need to watch and talk about movies like “Just Mercy” and engage in hundreds of conversations that highlight our common American values, not our differences.
Let’s not let the dividers win. Let’s rebuild hope in America so we can move forward.
- Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
ACLU of South Carolina
The public spiritedness of our underwriters allows us to bring Statehouse Report to you at no cost. This week’s spotlighted underwriter is the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU of South Carolina is dedicated to preserving the civil liberties enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Through communications, lobbying and litigation, the ACLU of South Carolina works to preserve and enhance the rights of all citizens of South Carolina. Foremost among these rights are freedom of speech and religion, the right to equal treatment under law, and the right to privacy.
5 tips to protect your tax refund from fraudsters
By S.C. Treasurer Curtis Loftis | Benjamin Franklin once said, “Nothing is certain except death and taxes.” But just as you can count on tax time happening each year, you can be certain there will be scammers trying to steal your personal information and tax refund.
This week, January 27 – January 31, is Tax Identity Theft Awareness Week. Tax identity theft happens when someone steals your Social Security number (SSN) or other personal information to file a phony tax return and receive a refund. As an advocate for the taxpayers of South Carolina, I wanted to bring attention to this year’s observance and offer resources to help you learn more about spotting potential scams and fighting imposters’ attempts of stealing your information.
Our state was recently ranked at number five in a list by WalletHub for States With the Most Identity Theft and Fraud, highlighting the importance of taking the extra steps necessary to protect yourself and your information. To curb the threat of tax-related identity theft this filing season – and year-round – keep in mind the following tips:
File your tax return early.
Oftentimes, people do not know they’re victims of tax identity theft until their return is rejected as a duplicate filing or the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) notifies them via mail of suspicious activity. Filing early helps limit this risk, as it gives scammers a shorter timeframe to file a fraudulent return using your information. By filing your legitimate return early, identity thieves won’t be able to try and steal your refund later. Find information about filing options at dor.sc.gov/iit-filing.
Choose your tax preparer wisely.
Most tax return preparers provide outstanding and professional tax service. However, each year, some taxpayers are hurt financially because they choose the wrong tax return preparer. If you plan to pay someone to help prepare your taxes, do diligent research in advance and choose wisely, as you’ll be sharing with them your most personal information, including details about your marriage, income, children, social security number and overall financial picture.
Know the signs of an IRS imposter.
Scams take many shapes and forms, which is why it’s important to know the signs of a legitimate IRS communication and the signs of a scam. For example, there’s a common phone scam where IRS impersonators call taxpayers, saying they owe money and must pay right away. However, the real IRS does not initiate contact via phone and will never call you demanding money. By familiarizing yourself with common IRS imposter scams, you’ll empower yourself with the knowledge to thwart fraudsters’ attempts at identity theft. You can find information about recent and prevalent tax scams on the IRS website.
Protect your personal information.
You can only control what happens to your personal information as long as it’s in your possession. Be diligent in storing documents that contain sensitive financial information in a secure location. Once you no longer need them, shred them. Use the IRS publication Security Awareness for Taxpayers as a reference for additional steps you can take to protect yourself from identity thieves.
Ensure your computer is protected.
The South Carolina Department of Revenue (SCDOR) recommends filing online using a reputable provider – it’s fast, accurate, and secure. But you still need to be proactive about protect your information by ensuring your computer is protected. When dealing with financial or sensitive information, only use secure, protected Wi-Fi networks – never public Wi-Fi networks – and only give personal information over encrypted websites, which you can identify by the “https” web address prefix. Utilize the SCDOR Cyber Security Awareness resource center, which offers pertinent information about protecting yourself online.
Curtis Loftis is the South Carolina State Treasurer. As treasurer, he is the state’s “private banker,” managing, investing and retaining custody of nearly $50 billion in public funds. If you believe your information has been compromised, you can contact the IRS Identity Protection Specialized Unit at 1-800-908-4490, or visit IdentityTheft.gov.
Uplifting message on your teacher
To the editor:
A short note to tell you how much I enjoyed your fourth grade recollection and your tribute to Mrs. Scott. A most uplifting message and so very good of you to write Mrs. Scott, if I may be allowed to say so.
— Dale Rhodes, Richmond, Va.
To the editor:
I was touched by your story of your teacher in good ol Jesup, Ga. I was based at Fort Stewart, Ga., and living in nearby Hinesville, Ga., from 1990-1994 while serving in the Army. I was also a technical college teacher in Georgia in the 90s.
I was well satisfied with my pay and especially lucrative retirement/medical benefits provided by the state to all teachers. We, as humans, are never really satisfied with our pay level. We always want more! I learned that my teaching was a result of my desire to serve my fellow citizens while receiving adequate pay and that, to me, was satisfactory.
Your teacher from Jesup lived a healthy and happy life that was provided by the taxpayers of Georgia. No doubt, teaching in Jesup was one of the best jobs in Jesup which is still a poor and depressed city to this day.
Thank you for your story but I disagree with the premise. The true pay for teachers is service and memories of students like you…..not constantly nagging taxpayers for higher wages.
— Will Bradley, Las Vegas, Nevada
Tell us what you think — sound off!
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Our Mystery Photo and S.C. Encyclopedia features will be back next year.
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