COLUMBIA, S.C. — As thousands of teachers, supporters, students, and parents crowded the Statehouse lawn Wednesday, the South Carolina House and Senate did not debate education.
For the exception of one comment from Democratic Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, the House never formally addressed the thousands rallying outside.
Democratic Rep. Mandy Powers Norrell said, unlike the Senate, House members are limited when attempting to speak on issues not related to legislation on the daily agenda or audience introductions.
An education bill on Wednesday’s agenda was never introduced during Wednesday’s House session, which lasted roughly two and a half hours.
Many of the House members left the chamber to go observe some of the rally or speak to the crowd while the session was ongoing.
Republican Rep. and Education Committee Chairwoman Rita Allison said they had already addressed many of the issues teachers were rallying about.
“We have passed an increase in their salaries this year, it started in the House budget. We've also passed legislation that will look at the amount of paperwork that they do to try to do away with as much of the paperwork and the time consuming that takes them out of their classrooms. We've also looked at the class sizes and right now there's not enough teachers to fill those slots,” Allison said.
Growing class sizes, which have been a sticking point with teachers, are not a simple fix and require more study and debate, according to Allison.
She said the House would give the issue more consideration in an effort to find a solution and avoid creating an unfunded mandate.
Allison said she supported teachers using their voice and did not have a problem with Wednesday’s rally.
In the Senate, Democratic Sen. Thomas McElveen agreed that class sizes are an issue, but had the same concern.
“It takes money, a lot of these smaller counties cannot implement it that fast, cause you have to ask the question, where will the students go? Do we have space to have that many more classrooms?” McElveen said during the Senate’s session Wednesday.
However, he said he supported starting the conversation and hoped to see legislation introduced next year to address it. McElveen also mentioned concern that the state might not have enough teachers to meet a mandated student-to-teacher ratio.
The Sumter Democrat also said the raises approved this year, were not enough.
“While I am pleased that we did include an increase for teachers in our budget this year, a pay increase, it’s not enough, it was never going to be enough,” continuing that it was probably not possible to catch it up all in one year.
Other senators were frustrated that Santee Cooper and its potential sale are dominating the last few weeks of this year’s Senate session.
Democratic Sen. Margie Bright Matthews spent a few minutes addressing the Senate to lament her bills, which did not pass this year, that related to some of the teachers' desired education reforms.
Across the aisle, other senators expressed annoyance with the daily agenda.
“So, you know, I wonder if people at home think that those of us on the back row have anything to do with this discussion. How is it that we get to, from the year of the teacher, to the year of Santee Cooper?” said Charleston’s Republican Senator Sandy Senn on the floor Wednesday.
Education was debated briefly on the floor before and after the senators' comments, but debate was largely focused on Santee Cooper.
The Senate adjourned just before 4 p.m.