RELEASE: Palmetto Promise Institute Wins Major National Award for Protecting Students’ Futures
COLUMBIA, SC – Palmetto Promise Institute was named the winner of the State Policy Network’s top honor, the Bob Williams Award for Policy Achievement – Biggest Win for Freedom, in recognition of the work Palmetto Promise has done to restore South Carolina’s school choice program and protect children’s futures.
In September 2024, the South Carolina Supreme Court released its decision in Eidson v. South Carolina Department of Education, leaving thousands of South Carolina’s low-income families, without warning, cut off from using their school choice scholarship (the Education Scholarship Trust Fund) for tuition at their school of choice. As the state’s trusted expert on school choice, Palmetto Promise immediately sprang into action to support these families in crisis and amplify their voices to state leaders.
Within days of the ruling, Palmetto Promise traveled to every corner of the state, gathering moving video testimonials from affected parents and kids. These video testimonials were used in a sophisticated digital campaign, driving South Carolinians to a petition to ask their lawmakers to help the families in need. Over 70 pages of written testimony from scholarship families were collected and shared with state legislators, and as a result, school choice became the first item on the agenda for the General Assembly’s 2025 legislative session, with a series of rare pre-session Education committee meetings ensuring a bill made it to the Senate floor the first week of session.
But Palmetto Promise’s efforts went beyond just policy; it was personal. Under the leadership of President & CEO Wendy Damron, PPI raised over $2.5 million in private donations for a Rescue Fund so no child would be forced to leave their school as a result of the mid-year court decision. These generous donors allowed Palmetto Promise to support more than 700 students attending over 150 private schools in South Carolina while legislators debated the school choice program. Nearly all of those students renewed their participation in the ESTF program for the 2025-26 school year, showing that families loved their 2024-25 experience so much—even with a court-ordered shutdown and the need for a private rescue—that they renewed their scholarships for another year.
Most importantly, as a direct result of Palmetto Promise’s work, school choice has been restored in South Carolina, even bigger and better than before. Act 11 (S.62), signed into law in May 2025, was more than a fix; it was a transformation.
In her acceptance speech, Damron shared how this setback only served to advance school choice in the Palmetto State: “The enemies of education freedom tried to create chaos and discouragement to set the program back. But what they got instead was a new law that is even stronger, with more and larger scholarships, broader eligibility, and a passion for the program that didn’t previously exist.”
Already, South Carolina is seeing the fruit of Act 11. All 10,000 scholarships for the 2025-26 school year have been filled, with a waitlist in the thousands.
The future of school choice is bright in South Carolina, and Palmetto Promise is so honored to be recognized by peers in the freedom movement for the important work amplifying the voices of South Carolina parents.
“We know the work is not finished,” Damron said. “We won’t stop until every child in South Carolina has the freedom to learn where they thrive best.”
Palmetto Promise President & CEO Wendy Damron was previously awarded the Heritage Foundation’s 2025 Doer Award in recognition of the ESTF Families’ Rescue Fund.
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Palmetto Promise Institute (PPI) is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) educational organization. Founded in 2013, Palmetto Promise Institute champions free-market policies across five key areas: Education, Fiscal Policy, Healthcare, Energy, and Quality of Life. The Institute’s mission is to promote policies that enable every South Carolinian to thrive and reach their full potential.
