Our Position:

Refer to the LWVSC Program & Action Agenda for our current position on this issue and background/action information, as applicable. 

Current Issues:

Education Funding in South Carolina 

Senate Committee on Education Funding Reform – An ad hoc committee was convened to explore the important issues around education funding in South Carolina and to draft a bill to be filed in 2021 for the general reform of secondary education funding in South Carolina. Testimony was written by League Co-President, and respected economist specializing in South Carolina local and state government revenues, Holley Ulbrich. See below.  She also gave extensive oral testimony to the committee.

• Education Funding Issues: Additional Comments  (January 22, 2020) 
• Education Funding Issues: A Framework for Achievable Reform Prepared for the Senate Education Funding Reform Committee (December 9, 2019)  
• Testimony to the Senate Education Reform Study Committee (Dec. 4, 2019) 
• Tax Reform 2020 (November 2019)

Related Resources/Studies/Campaigns:

• Public Education Funding (2018)
• Education Funding (2018 presentation for Hilton Head)
• Tax presentation (2013) by Dr. Holley Ulbrich, LWVSC Director Taxation Policy; Jim Self Center Senior Scholar, Strom Thurmond Institute, Clemson University 
• South Carolina's Education Funding Puzzle: a series of LWVSC policy briefs on how public education is financed in the state 

• Part 1--The Education Finance Act Piece (2010)
• Part 2--Two Cents for Education: The Sales Tax and Schools (2011)
• Funding for Public Education in South Carolina
• Act 388 Revisited
• Financing Education in SC - A Citizen's Guide By Holley H. Ulbrich and Ellen W. Saltzman, The Jim Self Center on the Future at the Strom Thurmond Institute of Government and Public Affairs. This updated document outlines K-12 public education finance and school governance in South Carolina and current policy issues.
• Policy Brief: Assessment Caps and the Point of Sale Provision Policy Brief: Assessment Caps and the Point of Sale Provision By Holley H. Ulbrich, The Jim Self Center on the Future at the Strom Thurmond Institute of Government and Public Affairs. 
• LWVSC Position Paper on Education Vouchers and Tuition Tax Credits (2010)
• Why Should You Care about the Index of Taxpaying Ability? By Holley H. Ulbrich and Ellen W. Saltzman, The Strom Thurmond Institute of Government and Public Affairs (2019) 
• Property Tax Caps (2007, 2008) What other states do that relate to S1 and S2 (spending limits) and H 3272 (property tax caps):
• Characteristics of Property Tax Assessment Limits by State, 2007
  
• Tax and Expenditure Limits (TELs) in Other States, 2008
• Paying for Government in South Carolina: A Citizen's Guide. By Holley W. Ulbrich and Ada Louise Steirer, Strom Thurmond Institute of Government and Public Affairs, Clemson University (2003 
• Tax Policy in South Carolina (2010)