South Carolina localities have little to no statutory guidelines regarding when local elections are allowed, which has led to a much smaller voter turnout than the typical statewide general election. But local elections hold just as much importance, if not more, than statewide elections. There, citizens have the chance to vote for the officials that
I’ll never forget the first time I laid eyes on Barbara Nielsen. It was a civic club meeting in Columbia in early 1990, a statewide election year. Republican Carroll Campbell was Governor, but a Democrat held every other statewide office. There had never been a Republican State Superintendent of Education. As Barbara was being introduced,
According to Pew research, 90% of Americans claim to have some awareness of AI. That is not surprising, as the term went from unknown to ubiquitous in only three years. Or was it three weeks? Yet, that same Pew survey found that only one-in-three respondents claim to have heard a lot about it. Artificial Intelligence
This op-ed by Palmetto Promise Senior Fellow Oran Smith originally appeared in the Post and Courier August 15, 2024, and a version of it appeared on the Carolinas Academic Leadership Network site in July. Oklahoma’s state school Superintendent Scott Walters has made headlines for his new policy requiring the teaching of the Christian Bible and
South Carolina’s public education system is governed by a complex, and often overlapping, set of stakeholders, from the State Superintendent of Education to the State Board of Education, local school districts and their boards, district superintendents, and of course the General Assembly. Each of these parties has some role in how education is governed and
This report examines policies relating to free speech and expression within South Carolina public institutions of higher education. Declarations of intent or belief like the Chicago Statement are admirable, but the proof is in the pudding—or in specific policies, rather.
It was a high honor for Virgil C. Summer when SCE&G named its new power plant for him. After all, in 1984, V.C. Summer I was an impressive engineering feat. The new nuclear reactor generated a whopping 966 MW of electricity, and its construction was so efficient that it cost far less per MW generated
This op-ed was published in the Carolina Journal on July 25, 2024. It is written by Bryce Fiedler, director of the Carolinas Academic Leadership Network, for which Palmetto Promise is a partner organization. It’s been over 300 years since the colony of Carolina was officially divided, establishing distinct North and South Carolina colonies. Today, as
This op ed by Palmetto Promise Senior Fellow Dr. Oran Smith was originally published in the National Review, July 23, 2024. Because South Carolina wisely resisted total lockdown during Covid, coming out of the pandemic, we were in a good position. But on fiscal issues, state leaders had been content to kick the can down
American entrepreneurship, once legendary, is on the decline. The United States Joint Economic Committee reports that since the 1970s entrepreneurship has diminished across multiple different measures, including business formation. One reason for the reduction in business start-ups is the increasingly complex regulatory environment that government has introduced in the past few years. Small businesses are
