In the next legislative session, those who watch the Legislature for education issues are likely to see controversies over:

• Public school funding and accountability
• Student discipline
• Parental rights
• Teacher salaries and staffing shortages
• Funding for mobile panic alarms
• Coercive control
• Culture war issues
• Revised social studies standards

Public School Funding and Accountability

Funding and accountability for the Education Scholarship Trust Fund (ESTF), also known as the voucher program, are the two issues that are likely to be most critical in the next session. The South Carolina Education Oversight Committee met on Sept. 21, 2026, and heard a report from the Department of Education stating that the relevant data on the program from 2024-25 were insufficient and therefore unreportable, prompting Representative Neal Collins to complain forcefully about the inadequacy of the data on the program. Part of the failure can be laid at the feet of the Department of Education, but the provisions for accountability in the legislation were never sufficient. 

Student Discipline

Teachers have reported that discipline is an important concern and that in many cases administrators have not been giving teachers adequate support with chronically serious behavior problems. There was a student discipline bill last year, but advocates of special needs students said it did not give special needs students adequate protection, so it did not pass. At least one of the teacher organizations is working to draft a new bill about student discipline that will be introduced in the next session. 

Parental Rights 

A related concern is the proliferation of bills with language about parental rights. These tend to be copycat bills with much of the language provided by conservative think tanks. These bills frame the issue as a conflict between parents and school systems, but the danger is that students are not the property of their parents and in some dysfunctional families, students may need protection from their parents. 

Teacher Recruitment and Retention

We can commend the Legislature for the improvements they have made in teacher salaries over the past five years. The reports on teacher shortages have improved as well, but some teachers say more help is needed. Smaller class sizes generally lead to better outcomes and the way to have smaller classes is to hire more teachers. 

Mobile Panic Alarms

Last session, the Legislature passed a bill for mobile panic alarms (ID cards that teachers can use to summon help in an emergency), but they did not fund it fully for all districts. Adding more funds for that would improve school safety. 

Coercive Control. 

This is mostly about domestic violence, but can also be relevant for vulnerable children and elderly people. Two Senate bills were proposed last year to establish a law against coercive control. Since it was written in a way that could backfire and hurt victims, it could not move out of committee. The Netflix 3-part series called Death of a Pastor’s Wife about the suicide of Mica Miller of the Myrtle Beach area is relevant to this topic.

Culture war issues

These include restricting instruction related to controversial issues and prohibiting controversial books and instructional materials, such as materials related to race, slavery, sex, gender identity and religious freedom. There are already restrictions in a budget proviso and we could see more attempts to codify some of those in the next session. 

Social Studies Standards

The Legislature will eventually be asked to approve the new social studies standards for South Carolina. 

• One criticism is that the draft standards emphasize memorization and recall without adequately addressing critical thinking skills such as recognizing propaganda and evaluating bias. 
• Reviewing the draft standards is a bigger task than most citizens will undertake. Some early reviewers have reported concerns that the proposed emphasis on adding Western Civilization courses might be a cloaked way to introduce white Christian nationalist ideas. 
• Many people think we need two years of United States history rather than just one. The rumor is that the Department of Education overruled the drafting committee on their recommendation to increase the United States history requirement in high school. Civics instruction could be increased from a single semester to a whole year of US Government and Economics in high school. 
• Any content-related debates will happen at the State Board of Education or possibly in the Education Oversight Committee. By the time the proposed standards reach the Legislature, approving the Social Studies Standards document will be an up-or-down vote.

With national midterms scheduled for November and with the political divisions that currently exist in our country, we can anticipate some surprises. 

~Janelle Rivers, LWVSC education advocacy specialist