In this OpEd, originally published in The Daily Signal, Jonathan Butcher discusses the ongoing battle over parental rights in South Carolina. It happened again: A parent, this one in South Carolina, has accused teachers at her child’s school of hiding information about him from his family. Fortunately, state lawmakers are considering a proposal to protect parents from educators who
On March 18, 2026, I appeared before the Senate Education Subcommittee to testify on Senator Rex Rice’s S.708, which would create a limited regulatory sandbox and offer some much-needed regulatory and statutory flexibility to school districts who successfully applied for a waiver. However, time constraints limited my testimony significantly – below are my full prepared
This op-ed, originally published in FITSNews, highlights the need for a shift in how we think about the Education Scholarship Trust Fund (ESTF). Rather than debating whether we should fund 10,000 seats or 20,000, we should be looking at funding every application that came in during the priority window – supporting families who need this
In the midst of the ongoing school choice debate over “unbundlers” in the ESTF program, three school choice champions rose above the rest: Senator Jason Elliott (R-Greenville), Senator Larry Grooms (R-Berkeley), and Representative Steven Long (R-Spartanburg). All three took the opportunity to defend the ESTF program – Senators Elliott and Grooms during a Senate Education
This article, published originally in The Daily Signal, features commentary from Palmetto Promise Visiting Fellow and Acting Director of the Center for Education Opportunity at the Heritage Foundation Jonathan Butcher. Why do South Carolina lawmakers want to make it more difficult for families to educate their children? Lawmakers are misinterpreting the very law they
Palmetto Promise Director of Education Policy Ryan Dellinger is quoted in this article, originally posted in the Post and Courier, related to recent data on the Education Scholarship Trust Fund released by the State Department of Education. Columbia, S.C. (The Post and Courier) – Most of the students receiving South Carolina’s state-funded private school scholarships
After incredible positive momentum over the last four years in South Carolina, suddenly school choice—real parent-empowering school choice— is on the hotseat. How did this happen, and so quickly? It all started just a few weeks ago when Senate Education Chair Senator Greg Hembree filed S.692, intending to eliminate “unbundlers” from the new Education Scholarship
In 2025, the SC General Assembly passed S.62 (Act 11), which established the Education Scholarship Trust Fund , an ESA-style program providing education scholarships for students in grades K-12. This action completed the pre-K to college scholarship spectrum for the Palmetto State. (The state already sponsored private college scholarships (Tuition Grants, 1971; 1973) and private pre-K scholarships (First Steps, 1999).) Unfortunately, in 2026, with the ESTF program up and running, some members of the General Assembly are remembering certain details of S.62 differently
I recently testified before a Senate Education Subcommittee regarding S.692, which would eliminate “Option 4” homeschooling – or, more accurately, “unbundling’ – from the ESTF program. Below is the transcript of my testimony. My remarks have been edited for clarity, since they were not delivered from a prepared text. Palmetto Promise has been the evangelist
The slides embedded below tell a brief history of grade floors in South Carolina as well as the origins of our 10-point grading scale. What one State Superintendent once considered against state policy in 2012 was later determined by another to be a district-level decision in 2015. Our current Uniform Grading Policy is silent on
