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After nearly eight years of hard work by Palmetto Promise Institute and many others, South Carolina has a brand new education freedom program on the way! Education Scholarship Trust Fund scholarships will be awarded beginning with the 2024-25 school year. Here are some of the key details: *The official name of the South Carolina program

The photo you see adjacent to this post is of a group of true believers who assembled on January 21, 2020 on the first floor of the Statehouse to call for a total repeal of the state Certificate of Need program. Earlier this week, Senator Tom Davis referred to this event humorously as “a few

The Heritage Foundation's Jonathan Butcher writes about South Carolina's new ESA bill in reimaginED, citing PPI research.

This week, South Carolina residents have reason to celebrate as the state has repealed Certificate of Need (CON) laws. While most people may not be familiar with the term, the effects of these laws are felt every day. CON laws were introduced in the 1960s as a misguided way to control healthcare costs by limiting

PPI Senior Fellow Dr. Oran Smith is quoted in this Center Square article by T.A. DeFeo.

Effect of House 3M Committee Amendment (S.164) In both 2022 and 2023, the South Carolina Senate under the leadership of Majority Leader Shane Massey, Medical Affairs Committee Chairman Danny Verdin, and Senators Wes Climer and Tom Davis sent the South Carolina House a bill fully repealing Certificate on Need (CON). Certificate of Need is the

If you’ve watched Grey’s Anatomy or The Good Doctor, or if you have been admitted to a hospital for any reason, you’ve probably heard of “hospital privileges.” The term simply means that for your doctors to take care of you in any given facility, they must be given the “privilege” of doing so, a right

Thanks, Citizen Sleuths! It appears that some in the education lobby didn’t like our “citizen sleuth” exercise from two weeks ago. (This was our call for your help calculating ease of access to health [sexuality] education curricula on school district websites.) Our simple research effort was spun this way in a Senate hearing on curriculum

The following is the statement of Palmetto Promise Institute Senior Fellow Dr. Oran Smith before the House Education and Public Works Committee on the matter of S.39, the Education Scholarships Accounts Act. Update: S.39 was signed by Governor McMaster on May 4, 2023. The effective date of the bill, now Act 8, is June 3,

It is hard to believe that there are only six weeks left in the first session of the 125th South Carolina General Assembly. But it is looking like a promising first year for the Palmetto Freedom Agenda. Here are some highlights with links to a deeper dive: Stay tuned for a full tracking of Palmetto