Blog

This op-ed, originally published in FITSNews, highlights the need for a shift in how we think about the Education Scholarship Trust Fund (ESTF).  Rather than debating whether we should fund 10,000 seats or 20,000, we should be looking at funding every application that came in during the priority window – supporting families who need this

In the midst of the ongoing school choice debate over “unbundlers” in the ESTF program, three school choice champions rose above the rest: Senator Jason Elliott (R-Greenville), Senator Larry Grooms (R-Berkeley), and Representative Steven Long (R-Spartanburg).  All three took the opportunity to defend the ESTF program – Senators Elliott and Grooms during a Senate Education

South Carolina taxpayers were the winners this week in a friendly game of chicken between the Senate and the House over how deeply to cut the state’s top marginal individual income tax rate. But before we get to the details of a busy money week for the legislature, here is a short tax cut history.

This article, published originally in The Daily Signal, features commentary from Palmetto Promise Visiting Fellow and Acting Director of the Center for Education Opportunity at the Heritage Foundation Jonathan Butcher.    Why do South Carolina lawmakers want to make it more difficult for families to educate their children? Lawmakers are misinterpreting the very law they

Palmetto Promise Director of Education Policy Ryan Dellinger is quoted in this article, originally posted in the Post and Courier, related to recent data on the Education Scholarship Trust Fund released by the State Department of Education. Columbia, S.C. (The Post and Courier) – Most of the students receiving South Carolina’s state-funded private school scholarships

After incredible positive momentum over the last four years in South Carolina, suddenly school choice—real parent-empowering school choice— is on the hotseat. How did this happen, and so quickly? It all started just a few weeks ago when Senate Education Chair Senator Greg Hembree filed S.692, intending to eliminate “unbundlers” from the new Education Scholarship

In 2025, the SC General Assembly passed S.62 (Act 11), which established the Education Scholarship Trust Fund , an ESA-style program providing education scholarships for students in grades K-12. This action completed the pre-K to college scholarship spectrum for the Palmetto State. (The state already sponsored private college scholarships (Tuition Grants, 1971; 1973) and private pre-K scholarships (First Steps, 1999).)   Unfortunately, in 2026, with the ESTF program up and running, some members of the General Assembly are remembering certain details of S.62 differently

I recently testified before a Senate Education Subcommittee regarding S.692, which would eliminate “Option 4” homeschooling – or, more accurately, “unbundling’ – from the ESTF program.  Below is the transcript of my testimony.  My remarks have been edited for clarity, since they were not delivered from a prepared text. Palmetto Promise has been the evangelist

The slides embedded below tell a brief history of grade floors in South Carolina as well as the origins of our 10-point grading scale. What one State Superintendent once considered against state policy in 2012 was later determined by another to be a district-level decision in 2015.  Our current Uniform Grading Policy is silent on

Palmetto Promise Institute Founding Chairman and longtime REINS Act champion Jim DeMint penned this open letter to the South Carolina legislature calling for them to pass the Small Business Regulatory Freedom Act. Dear Members of the South Carolina Senate, I have long believed that smart, transparent, and accountable regulation is essential to the livelihood of South