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Yesterday was an exciting day as Palmetto Policy joined with partners from around the state to launch our new education options resource catalogue for SC parents!Empowering Students celebrates all forms of education choice in SC —charter, virtual, private and homeschool— and highlight real Palmetto State families that are happily using each of these options. We also provide an easy “one-stop-shop” of resource links for parents to learn more about each of these choices that we hope will be a help for families as they seek to make the best decision for their student! But we need your help. Please take a minute to enjoy these inspiring stories, and most importantly, help us SHARE it via email and social media with your friends and family.Empowering Students will only be as effective as the number of South Carolina parents who read it!

PPF was honored to have an opportunity to bring Dr. Matt Ladner to testify at a recent South Carolina Senate hearing on the scholarship program. Below is his testimony:

Widely regarded as the groundbreaking leader of the Chicago School of monetary economics, Milton Friedman led a long and storied career, receiving the 1976 Nobel Prize for Economic Science, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1988 and the National Medal of Science the same year. But he is beloved because his academic brilliance was employed in the practical service of people. Friedman’s observance of the facts led him to a passionate belief that people truly free to choose their course in life without the heavy hand of undue government interference is the surest way forward to create hope and opportunity – a rising tide of prosperity – for all.

Compelling statistics below that reinforce why education transformation is so vital to the economic future of our Palmetto State: Reading is not taught beyond 3rd grade, yet 38% of our state’s 4th graders are functionally illiterate and 72% read below grade level. (NAEP 2011) In Charleston County, nearly 20% of 9th graders read at a

In short, “No.” President Obama’s push for massive federal spending on a universal pre-kindergarten program generated heated opposition over cost, government overreach and the questionable effectiveness of existing programs like Head Start. But now this debate has landed on our front step. The South Carolina State Senate is scheduled to vote early next week on

On a share-by-share basis, some donor states such as Texas, Florida, and South Carolina get less than an 85 percent share of the highway money they pay in [to the Federal Highway Trust Fund] while New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts get more than 100 percent. As bad as this disparity is, the allocation of federal transit spending is even more inequitable. Many highway donor states are also transit donor states, receiving much less for transit projects than they paid into the transit account, while many of the highway done states are also transit donees…