COLUMBIA, S.C. — A new law signed by Gov. Henry McMaster allows education majors at South Carolina colleges to receive extra scholarship money starting this fall.
The law aims to combat the state’s teacher shortage, which saw 1,315 open positions in public K-12 schools as of February, according to the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention & Advancement.
“This is a common-sense proposal that will enhance recruitment by making education majors more appealing to our talented high school students,” said Patrick Kelly, a lobbyist for the Palmetto State Teachers Association.
The bill, which passed both chambers unanimously, extends lottery-backed scholarships to education majors. Similar financial support has been available to math and science majors since 2007.
Recipients of these scholarships must commit to teaching in a South Carolina public school for as many years as they receive the aid, up to four years.
The funds, estimated to total $8 million in scholarships for the upcoming school year, will come from lottery profits. The scholarships will be available to college sophomores, juniors, and seniors who graduated from a South Carolina high school and are already receiving LIFE or Palmetto Fellows scholarships.
"High schoolers are struggling right now trying to figure out how to afford education and if they see that an education major provides a pathway to enhance scholarship dollars, we believe and we know from having surveyed high schoolers that more of them will consider an inner an education major field in college," said Kelly.
LIFE Scholarship recipients can receive up to an additional $2,500, while Palmetto Fellows can get an extra $3,300. The money is meant to cover the remaining tuition costs after other scholarships are applied.
“It won’t be an immediate help because we’ve got to get them through four years of prep, but it’s a good move,” said Shery East, President of the South Carolina Education Association.
Despite this positive step, advocates emphasize that more needs to be done. Lawmakers considered bills to allow teachers more time to back out of contracts and to account for experience outside the classroom in determining pay. However, these measures did not pass this legislative session.
The proposed bill would have allowed teachers to withdraw from their contracts within 10 days of seeing their salaries, with reduced penalties for withdrawals made within six months.
“The Educator Assistance Act would have given the state board discretion not to take action against teachers who moved for medical reasons or to keep a family together. We think that’s just basic professionalism and humane treatment of teachers as professionals,” Kelly said.
Another proposal aimed to attract individuals from other fields into teaching by recognizing their real-world experience in salary determinations.
"That's really transformative money for the families of educators that have prior work experience," said Kelly.
East and Kelly plan to continue advocating for these measures next year.
Additionally, lawmakers intend to increase the minimum teacher salary from $42,500 to $47,000 next year as part of ongoing efforts to address the teacher shortage.
Kelly also touted the paid parental leave bill that passed last year.
"What we're going to see is we're going to see a gradual shift in the educator shortage in the state. It's been growing every year for five years. But the general assembly is starting to really put some policies in place that hopefully will reverse that," said Kelly.
The budget process for this increase is still underway.
Meanwhile, East said she is disappointed in a bill addressing topics some lawmakers associate with Critical Race Theory in schools and a law requiring teachers to notify parents if students seek to change their gender identity or pronouns.
East added that she was glad a bill allowing noncertified teachers to teach in a classroom also didn't make the cut.
"Everybody wants to put a body in the classroom, but we want people to be prepared. I mean, I think our students deserve qualified, educated people that can do the job," said East.