Henry McMaster Education Plan Falls Short
Columbia, SC – Today, Republican Governor Henry McMaster outlined his education plan for the upcoming legislative session, including a $3,000 pay raise across the board for our state’s teachers.
While any increase in the salary of our educators is welcome, Henry McMaster’s plan falls short of a full fix to our state’s educational woes. When teachers took to the State House last May, they had a simple list of demands, including not just pay raises but class size changes, better school dates, and a host of other changes to our current education system that would benefit both teachers and students.
“Raising teacher salaries is a good start, but we need to open the discussion to all the changes teachers and students need to make South Carolina’s education system competitive.” said SCDP Chairman Trav Robertson. “This is not just an issue about teacher pay. Our schools are critically underfunded, and lack the funding they need to succeed. Henry McMaster would like to see that issue fixed with privatization, which would rob countless students of the free public education this country has promised them. We need to couple teacher salary increases with increases across the board to fund and invigorate public schools in South Carolina. Our teachers have been tireless in the fight to fix our schools, and I am confident they will continue to fight for the schools our students deserve.”
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