Voters could be asked again to give up electing SC school superintendent in 2022
Nearly three years ago, South Carolina voters rejected the Legislature’s attempt to make the state’s schools superintendent an appointed position by the governor, rather than leave it up to the voters every four years.
Now a mostly Republican coalition of state lawmakers and leaders want a do-over.
They’re hoping to place a similar question on the ballot in 2022.
A House panel Thursday approved in a 3-2 vote a measure sponsored by Republican House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Darlington, to make the superintendent part of the governor’s Cabinet with the state Senate’s approval if voters approve in a ballot referendum.
Democratic state Reps. Justin Bamberg, of Bamberg County, and Will Wheeler, of Lee County, voted against the question. All three Republicans on the panel — House Judiciary Committee chairman Chris Murphy of Dorchester County, Russell Fry of Horry County, and subcommittee chairman Weston Newton of Beaufort County, supported asking voters to approve the constitutional change.
If the bill passes, the question of whether to end popular elections for the state schools chief, making the position appointed instead while also meeting certain qualifications lawmakers approved in 2018, would appear on the next general election ballot, Newton said.
The state’s education superintendents have been elected in South Carolina since 1895.
Yet, in 2018, lawmakers tried to change that decades-long practice, with support from current Superintendent Molly Spearman, a Republican serving her second term, which ends in 2023.
On one end, many believe governors should have the authority to pick whom they want as superintendent, an appointment that would put both on the same policy level and perhaps politically over the statewide position. Others believe voters should keep their say, arguing that a superintendent should do what is best for education, students and teachers, and not be swayed by a political position.
But the relationship between the governor and the Legislature and the superintendent has been magnified over the past year as all three have tangled over school closings and reopenings because of the COVID-19 outbreak and unsuccessful efforts to slide teachers up in line to get a vaccine.
Republican Spearman and former state schools superintendent Inez Tenenbaum, a Democrat, partnered in 2018 in a state Chamber of Commerce video and asked lawmakers to vote “yes” on the ballot referendum. Former Republican Gov. Nikki Haley weighed in with her support, too.
But voters despite the push said no — by 945,902 to 672,992 votes, or roughly 60%.
“After putting her own money into the ballot measure and campaigning in favor of it across the state ... Spearman respects the will of the voters who overwhelmingly ... rejected the appointment of her position,” said Spearman’s spokesman, Ryan Brown.
The decision to hand the governor power to appoint the schools chief — the last statewide office a Democrat won in the state, back in 2006 with the election of Jim Rex — won’t be an easy one for Democrats and some educators to make.
Leaving voters to decide South Carolina’s schools chiefs does not guarantee adequate experience or expertise, testified Patrick Kelly, a lobbyist for the state’s largest teachers group, Palmetto State Teachers Association.
“However, that’s a trade-off that we make in a democracy by trusting the will of the people with our most important choices,” said Kelly, a 16-year teacher who testified against the proposal Thursday, speaking virtually from inside a high school classroom. “And in our state, few choices are more important than who will lead our state’s education system that shapes the future of our children and our state.”
In 2018, Gov. Henry McMaster signed into law a measure spelling out the qualifications a schools superintendent must have, if voters ever allow the position to be appointed.
But those qualifications have too many loopholes that could allow someone without a background in education to run the state’s schools, Kelly said. For example, he testified, a bill is moving through the Legislature right now that would give the superintendent more power to take over failing school districts and remove the district’s school board.
“I’m OK with Molly Spearman running a district, taking it over because she understands education. But I’ll just be frank. Some of the individuals I worked for as U.S. secretary of education, I wouldn’t want in charge of a local school district,” Kelly said. “They may have had the managerial skills in D.C. to run a federal agency. But to run a local school district, you better know something about curriculum” and how to support students, he said.
This story was originally published February 25, 2021 at 11:20 AM.
