Charleston County school board member enters Republican race for SC schools chief
A Charleston County school board member who supports school choice and opposes the teaching of so-called critical race theory in schools entered the race to become South Carolina’s next schools chief.
Cindy Coats, a three-term Charleston County school board member and former board chair, announced Thursday she would seek the Republican nomination for state superintendent of education.
“My campaign is built around a simple principle: Put parents first,” she said in a statement.
For Coats, putting parents first means ending mask and COVID-19 vaccine mandates, defending school choice and protecting the independence of homeschool organizations.
It also means setting high academic standards, ensuring education dollars flow into classrooms and keeping critical race theory out of schools, she said.
“I believe in South Carolina’s public school system” Coats said, “but we owe it to our kids to always seek to do better. And no one — no one — knows better how to raise a child than that child’s parents.”
Coats joins Palmetto Promise Institute president and CEO Ellen Weaver, Palmetto State Teachers Association executive director Kathy Maness, Lexington County educator Kizzi Staley Gibson and Greenville County school board trustee Lynda Leventis-Wells in the crowded Republican race to succeed outgoing State Superintendent Molly Spearman, who is not seeking reelection.
A North Charleston resident who was raised in South Carolina, Coats is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and Furman University’s Riley Institute Diversity Leadership Initiative, according to her bio.
She’s been on the Charleston County school board since 2010, serving as chair from 2012 to 2015.
Coats also serves as the South Carolina School Boards Association Region 2 director, sits on the board of South Carolina Alliance for Recovery Residences, has served as president of the Mayor’s Citizen Advisory Committee in North Charleston and is a founding member of the North Charleston Police Department’s Police/Community Executive Panel.
Last year, as regional director of the South Carolina School Boards Association, Coats said she led the group’s effort to withdraw from the national organization after it asked the federal government to investigate threats against public school officials who had supported school mask mandates.
The National School Board Association’s letter requesting a federal investigation, which called the harassment of school board members “equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes,” angered Republican politicians who resented the comparison of anti-mask parents to terrorists.
This story was originally published February 18, 2022 at 8:54 AM.