The History and Future of Curriculum Transparency in South Carolina
In 1988, after considerable and impassioned debate, the South Carolina General Assembly passed the Comprehensive Health Education Act. This law was a step forward in ensuring that all students across the Palmetto State receive health education that is both age-appropriate and comprehensive. Walking a legislative tightrope, the new statute created a standard to guide their teaching of health across all school districts in the state (see right for a 1988 news article about the legislation).
The new law seemed sufficient for a time, until questions were raised about whether certain curricula were compliant with the law. In order to ensure that the state statute was being followed by the many local school districts of South Carolina, legislators and community members began to seek a method for accessing the actual instructional materials that were being used to teach Health Education. Books and course materials were already available for parental review in the school offices, but a more modern method that would avoid copyright issues began to be debated. That’s how an enforcement mechanism was added in the state budget to provide transparency.
The Grooms Proviso
In the midst of accusations being thrown around regarding whether schools were following the guidelines set forth in the Comprehensive Health Education Act, Senator Larry Grooms (R-Moncks Corner) suggested a solution: a Health Education Transparency Proviso. That Proviso not only passed, it has made it into the state budget every year since the 2011-2012 spending plan. This proviso was entered into the 2024-2025 budget as Proviso 1.40, which states:
“Each district shall publish on its website the title and publisher of all health education materials it has approved, adopted, and used in the classroom”
But that was not all. The proviso also included the threat of a reduction in state funds in the event of any school district not complying with the publication of health education materials on the district’s website.
Accessing the Materials
The South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE), under the leadership of Superintendent Ellen Weaver, has recently updated its website to include respective health instructional materials easily accessible by school district. Before this new webpage appeared, citizens would be forced to navigate a labyrinth of web resources (which varied by school district) in search of the posting of the materials ordered by the proviso. (The proviso failed to insist that the curricular materials be easy to find.) Palmetto Promise applauds the efforts and work of SCDE to make this information more readily available to all citizens across South Carolina.
Palmetto Promise Institute analysis shows that there are a number of districts with links that were once readily available but cannot be located on their website currently. Of the 78 listed school districts on the SCDE’s website, Dorchester 4, Jasper, Newberry, Orangeburg, Richland One, and SC School for Deaf and Blind appear to be out of compliance with Proviso 1.40. We supplemented the Department’s list with our own research into these districts’ websites and could not find their health education curricula. Palmetto Promise will communicate our findings to the South Carolina Department of Education to assist with the updating of links to current health educational resources.
Why Curricular Transparency?
Transparency in the health curriculum provided by school districts is a parental right. Many parents desire to hold these important conversations with their children before their kids are slapped with the reality of life in front of a gymnasium full of classmates. Parents may wish to be able to answer questions and hold guided conversations with their children about sensitive topics, rather than leave it all in the hands of the school. Furthermore, parents just want to know what their kids are being taught.
The Grooms Proviso helps to protect this right of parents, but there is still more work to be done. The consequences of not complying with the Grooms Proviso are weak and unenforceable. And frankly, many school district websites are not the easiest to navigate, making it hard to find the health educational curriculum if it is in fact posted. It is time for the General Assembly to step in to shore up these parental rights.
Our Bottom Line
Because the Grooms Proviso has survived intact for over a decade, the General Assembly has shown that it values the transparency of educational resources. It is now time that this value be made a priority.
Palmetto Promise believes that
- The Grooms Proviso should be placed in the state code as a statute and not just as a budget proviso
- Curriculum transparency should be required for all courses, not just health education
- One-click access to all curriculum materials should be visible on school district website homepages
- School districts should face strict penalties for failure to provide information as stated by law
The South Carolina Transparency and Integrity Act, passed by both the House and Senate in the 2023-24 legislative session, would have codified all these elements into law. The bill unfortunately died in Conference Committee on a technicality. But the fight for curricular transparency is far from over.
To read more about Palmetto Promise’s stance on curriculum transparency check out CRT/Curriculum Transparency Bill Update: Codify and Expand Grooms Proviso and One Step Closer to Education Transparency
Palmetto Promise Institute will continue to fight for educational transparency in the upcoming legislative session. Parents always have the right to know what is being taught in their children’s classrooms.
