To justify its decision striking down Education Scholarship Trust Fund (ESTF) grants for low- and moderate-income K-12 students in September of last year (2024), the South Carolina Supreme Court presented a Palmetto State history lesson, but it was a perverse one. In the majority’s peculiar characterizations of South Carolina’s past, the words of arch-racist Ben
Our state’s civil justice statutes are in dire need of reform—on many levels. But specifically, it is our system of modified comparative negligence that is often so scandalously unjust. “Nuclear” outcomes have become common, especially in venues like Richland County, where eight-figure verdicts have become routine in recent years. In 2024, a jury awarded a
This piece by Adam Whittenberg originally published in The Lion cites Palmetto Promise’s ESTF Family Rescue Fund work. South Carolina is one step closer to restoring school choice after the state House passed a school choice plan Wednesday. By a 79-38 vote, the Republican-controlled House approved a plan to fund private school scholarships from the general budget.
This week, the House Education & Public Works Committee held a hearing on the bill that would restore school choice in South Carolina following the SC Supreme Court’s decision that left thousands of SC families with their promised scholarships ripped away. S.62 as passed by the South Carolina Senate would reinstate Education Scholarship Accounts (ESAs)
We are grateful to the South Carolina Senate for its recent passage of S.62, a bill by Education Chairman Greg Hembree that aims to restore school choice in South Carolina following the SC Supreme Court’s Eidson decision that left thousands of SC families with their promised scholarships ripped away. The legislation passed after several weeks
Palmetto Promise Institute’s new research report Achieving Prosperity, Stability, & Fairness: Essential South Carolina Tax Reforms lays out the tax code changes that state legislators would be wise to prioritize in the 2025-26 legislative session. INTRODUCTION Palmetto Promise Institute has produced two major reports assessing the competitiveness and fairness of the South Carolina tax code (2014;
Yesterday evening, the lame duck South Carolina Supreme Court surprised no one with the announcement that they weren’t interested in rehearing Eidson et al. v. South Carolina Department of Education et al., the legal proceeding also known as “the ESTF case” or the “the school choice case” (or, incorrectly, the “school voucher case”). To some,
