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.

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 piece by Lisa Buie was originally published on the NextSteps by Step Up for Students. It quotes a Palmetto Promise Institute statement. The latest: With about a month left before the new school year begins, nearly 3,000 South Carolina students and their families still face uncertainty as they wait for the South Carolina Supreme Court

Carolinas Academic Leadership Network (CALN) proudly announces the appointment of Bryce Fiedler as its first Director. Fiedler, formerly a Senior Policy Analyst with the South Carolina Policy Council, brings a wealth of experience and a deep commitment to educational excellence and parental empowerment. CALN, a collaborative initiative between the John Locke Foundation (Locke) in North

In the 2023-24 legislative session, Senator and Education Committee Chair Greg Hembree (R-Horry) introduced S.134, a bill that would require South Carolina school boards to livestream their meetings or make them otherwise electronically accessible in real-time.[1] The bill passed the Senate unanimously in early 2023 but unfortunately died in the House, after waiting an entire

The Palmetto Promise team is pleased to announce that we have been named a finalist for a national Communications Excellence award for the work we did spreading the word about South Carolina’s Education Scholarship Accounts! Out of 63 State Policy Network (SPN) affiliates, we were selected as one of three finalists for the Communications Excellence:

Palmetto Promise Institute hosted a successful training event for school board members, candidates, and community leaders on Saturday, June 22, in partnership with the Carolinas Academic Leadership Network. The room was packed with attendees from across the state, all passionate about improving our education system and bringing innovative solutions to the table. Our speakers covered

Now that the General Assembly has adjourned sine die, we are taking a look back at the 23 policies Palmetto Promise proposed in the 2023-24 Palmetto Freedom Agenda at the beginning of the legislative session. Did our Freedom Agenda policies make it into law? Or, at the very least, did they start a conversation that

The General Assembly has a chance to bolster South Carolina’s fledgling ESA program in the 2024 Fiscal Year budget, currently being reviewed in Conference Committee. As you may recall, for the 2024-25 school year, the Education Scholarship Trust Fund program will allocate 5,000 $6,000 scholarships to low and moderate income families across the state to