In the 2023-24 legislative session, Senator and Education Committee Chair Greg Hembree (R-Horry) introduced S.134, a bill that would require South Carolina school boards to livestream their meetings or make them otherwise electronically accessible in real-time.[1] The bill passed the Senate unanimously in early 2023 but unfortunately died in the House, after waiting an entire
The Palmetto Promise team is pleased to announce that we have been named a finalist for a national Communications Excellence award for the work we did spreading the word about South Carolina’s Education Scholarship Accounts! Out of 63 State Policy Network (SPN) affiliates, we were selected as one of three finalists for the Communications Excellence:
Late in the day June 26, the Conference Committee on S.1046, South Carolina’s judicial reform bill, reached an agreement on the final text to be sent to the Governor. Shortly thereafter, both legislative chambers approved the conference report unanimously. The bill now goes to Governor McMaster’s desk, where he is expected to sign it into
Palmetto Promise Policy Analyst Felicity Ropp is quoted in this article from the Center Square by Todd DeFeo. (The Center Square) — South Carolina lawmakers have approved a version of a judicial reform measure following months of back-and-forth debate. S. 1046, passed during this month’s special session, ostensibly increases transparency and accountability by changing how
Palmetto Promise Institute hosted a successful training event for school board members, candidates, and community leaders on Saturday, June 22, in partnership with the Carolinas Academic Leadership Network. The room was packed with attendees from across the state, all passionate about improving our education system and bringing innovative solutions to the table. Our speakers covered
South Carolina voters went to the polls on Tuesday to decide primaries in runoffs for one Congressional district, eight Senate primaries, and four House districts. These runoffs were forced due to the failure of any candidate to receive 50% +1 vote in the initial primary election held on June 11. You can view the full
This press release was originally published by the Texas Public Policy Foundation on June 17, 2024. AUSTIN – Today, the Texas Public Policy Foundation and other state-based think tanks sent a coalition letter to the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce stating their support for the spirit of the American Privacy Rights Act of
We are thrilled to announce a new Palmetto Promise Institute program this summer: the Junior Policy Scholars. The Junior Policy Scholar program, while newly named, is not new to Palmetto Promise. We have long taken talented high school students as interns and worked with them to develop remote internships and publish their pieces on our
Since 2017, Palmetto Promise Institute has been sounding the alarm that our South Carolina tax code is unfair, uncompetitive and imbalanced. In 2019, we took our claims to the next level by commissioning and releasing an econometric tax study by the foremost independent economist in South Carolina, Dr. Rebecca Gunnlaugsson. Turns out we were right!
This week, we have taken a journey back through our 2023-24 Palmetto Freedom Agenda to see how each of our twenty-three policies fared during the legislative session. Did our Freedom Agenda policies make it into law? Or, at the very least, did they start a conversation that future General Assemblies can act upon? Today, for
