One Step Closer to Education Transparency
After a year of silence on the issue, the South Carolina General Assembly is finally taking steps to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the South Carolina Transparency and Integrity in Education Act (H.3728) and send it to the Governor to be signed into law.
Palmetto Promise has advocated for this important legislation that cracks down on teaching CRT and woke gender ideology in our state’s K-12 classrooms. The bill requires full transparency in school curricula and sets in place a standardized procedure for complaints about inappropriate classroom content. South Carolina parents should have full access to all materials used in their child’s classroom, including curriculum and resources.
H.3728 passed the House back in February 2023. In early May 2023, the Senate amended and passed the bill, initiating a conference committee to work out the differences in the two versions. But since June 2023, H.3728 has sat untouched, with no conference committee meetings scheduled…that is until this morning, May 7, 2024.
Today, the Conference Committee on H.3728 finally met to discuss the two chambers’ differences. In the hour allotted for the meeting, the Committee—composed of Senators Jackson, Massey, and Hembree and Representatives Alexander, Erickson, and Adam Morgan—was not able to make it through the whole bill, but great progress was made.
Senate Majority Leader Massey explained the bill like this: “The idea is to create some consistency statewide, such that we’re not telling teachers how to teach—although we do give some guidance on what to teach—but really what we’re doing with this legislation is just being transparent and making sure that parents and guardians understand what’s going to be taught, and telling them what the process is if they want to object to that. It sets out the whole process, which I think is important. It sets the rules out, so everyone knows the rules we’re playing by.”
The legislation is far from radical. As we explained last year, it is based on a state budget proviso adopted nearly a decade ago.
The Committee must meet again to finish reconciling House and Senate disagreements, but we are encouraged by the steps taken today. We applaud the way the Committee is carefully considering the language adopted to reduce any unintended consequences and make sure this bill is the most effective it can be.
We will continue to push this issue and provide updates on the Conference Committee process on this important legislation as we have them.
