Republican school choice advocate Ellen Weaver elected as SC education superintendent
Republican Ellen Weaver, one of the state’s foremost champions of private school choice, has been elected South Carolina’s next superintendent of education.
A non-educator who has spent her career working in Republican politics and leading a conservative think tank, Weaver defeated Democrat Lisa Ellis, a veteran teacher and founder of grassroots teachers group SC for Ed, by nearly 13 points, according to unofficial election results.
She declared victory shortly after 11 p.m. Tuesday, striking a hopeful and conciliatory tone in her speech at the University of South Carolina Alumni Center.
“It will take all of us working in and with our local schools to support our students and to build strong bridges of trust and collaboration between our principals, our teachers and our parents,” Weaver said.
Working together, she said, will be the necessary path forward.
“This is the way we claim the full promise of what our education system can be and this is the way that South Carolina leads an education revolution that sets an example for the rest of the country to follow,” Weaver said.
Her message of unity Tuesday night belied the sometimes divisive nature of her campaign, which often stoked hot-button topics, such as critical race theory, COVID protocols and transgender student rights.
In recent months, Weaver has increasingly softened her rhetoric and touted her executive leadership ability and familiarity with Republican lawmakers and the legislative process.
“I firmly believe that when we work together our moments of greatest challenge can be transformed into our moments of greatest opportunity,” she said Tuesday. “That’s why I ran for this office, because I believe that with leadership, vision and common sense we can deliver real results for our students, support our great teachers and empower parents across our state.”
Weaver won’t be statutorily qualified to serve as South Carolina schools chief until December, when she’s conferred the master’s degree she completed while running her campaign. It remains possible her ability to serve could be challenged, but Ellis has been mum about her intentions and Weaver has dismissed the possibility her victory could be overturned.
Assuming she takes office in January, Weaver is expected to adopt a political posture to the right of outgoing Superintendent Molly Spearman, a moderate Republican who recently endorsed her after backing her opponent Kathy Maness in the GOP primary.
In her victory speech, Weaver thanked Spearman for her service to the state and strength in navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, which she said had laid bare the fault lines in South Carolina’s education system.
She also recognized Ellis for her passion and dedication during a hard-fought campaign, saying her opponent had spotlighted real issues facing classroom teachers that her administration plans to address.
Ellis conceded the race Wednesday morning, saying in a statement that she’d called Weaver to congratulate her on a well-run race.
“While the results are not what we wanted, we know we made a huge impact on this state,” she said, promising to continue fighting for students, teachers and school staff.
Ellis, who mostly avoided partisan talking points in hopes of pulling moderates turned off by Weaver’s rhetoric and lack of education credentials, couldn’t attract enough crossover votes to become the first Democrat elected to statewide office since 2006.
The 47-year-old Blythewood High School teacher, who campaigned on her experience gained through two-plus decades in the classroom, said she would refocus her energies on teaching and advocacy after spending the past few months balancing those tasks with a busy campaign schedule.
Weaver’s education priorities
As a longtime supporter of education savings accounts and tuition tax credits that divert public dollars to private schools, Weaver has said she would implement and administer any school choice program the General Assembly passes.
“Too often, many families face income limitations because of their ZIP code and just because of their family circumstances,” she said during a candidate debate last week. “I want every child to be able to get into the education environment that is right for them.”
Weaver also wants to raise teacher pay, take paperwork off of educators’ plates and enhance school safety by placing a student resource officer in every school.
Unlike Ellis, who advocated for more state education funding, Weaver has called the underfunding of education a “myth” and is contemplating rejecting federal education dollars that she argues tie the state’s hands.
“I’d like to see us make efficient use of the money that we already have in the system before we just start throwing money at problems,” she said at last week’s debate.
As superintendent, Weaver said she’d order a “top-to-bottom” audit of the state Department of Education to better understand how money is currently being spent and where the agency can find savings that can be returned to classrooms.
Her top academic focus is early childhood literacy — she previously served on Spearman’s Read to Succeed advisory panel — and she has called for a return to phonics instruction in South Carolina schools.
Weaver also has vowed to fight the “wokeism and sexualization agendas coming out of Washington,” a reference to instruction that centers race, gender and sexual identity in a way that some parents feel is inappropriate.
She opposes the “pernicious” ideology of critical race theory and supports the removal of what she has called “pornographic” books from school libraries at the behest of parents.
“These are things that parents have the right to decide and a school should never come between a parent and a child in these critical decisions,” Weaver said.
Her message to parents, she said Tuesday night, is that help is on the way.
“Your right to make choices for your children is paramount,” Weaver said. “I want to partner with you to restore trust in our education system through total transparency, and I will always fight to ensure that you are in the driver’s seat of your child’s educational future.”
What does Weaver’s election mean for public education?
Critics of Weaver, including Ellis, said they fear her victory portends a rightward shift at the Department of Education that could further alienate teachers and exacerbate the state’s teacher shortage.
They believe her support for private school choice threatens to destroy public education by siphoning off tax dollars that would be better spent in support of improving public schools.
“I think that the move consistently into trying to privatize education, trying to move public money to private entities completely gets away from the purpose of educating a civilized society,” Ellis told The State earlier this year. “It’s not only an attack on public education, but it’s an attack on the state of South Carolina … And an attack on our democracy of for the people by the people.”
Weaver has remained steadfast in her support of school choice while denying any plans to decimate public education.
She said she views the state superintendent’s role as a defender of public education and will work diligently to improve South Carolina’s public school system.
Despite focusing on politically charged issues throughout much of her campaign, Weaver has expressed a willingness to learn from her predecessor and seek input from a variety of education stakeholders rather than taking immediate executive action.
“Whether you are a teacher, counselor, administrator, paraprofessional, bus driver, cafeteria worker or any of the other vital roles that support our students, I value you,” she said Tuesday night. “I will continue to listen to you and I will make sure that your voice is represented in decisions made in Columbia.”
This story was originally published November 9, 2022 at 12:03 AM.