By Lindsay Street, Statehouse correspondent | It’s hard to get excited about 1 percent of anything, but education advocates are calling a 1-percent pay raise for S.C. teachers a step — albeit a small step — in the right direction.
S.C. Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, called South Carolina’s $8 billion spending plan passed by the legislature this week “a good education budget.”
“It’s the best we've had in years, but it still doesn't get us where we need to be,” Hutto said.
With the state chronically low on every education list and districts struggling with teacher shortages, education is getting more attention and more money. This week, the annual KIDS COUNT child welfare report found 74 percent of S.C. eighth graders are not proficient in math and 71 percent of S.C. fourth graders are not proficient in reading. The state was ranked 41st in education. Other studies rank it lower.
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