South Carolina lawmakers kill legislation targeting teaching

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - In a turn of events that some at the State House, including lawmakers, call shocking, a bill to restrict what can be taught in South Carolina classrooms won’t become law after all.

But ers and opponents of the push say this likely isn’t the last time we’ll hear about it.

Republicans ed the controversial bill by wide margins – but with some differences between what the Senate and House approved.

They had to reach a compromise on the bill to get it to the governor – which opened the door for the Democratic minority to kill it.

“If we could turn a horrible bill into a bad bill, that’s good. If we could stop a bad bill from becoming law, that’s even better. And I think that is what happened,” said Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Richland.

Among its provisions, this bill would’ve banned teaching concepts including one race, sex, ethnicity, color or national origin is inherently superior to another – and that people are responsible for other actions committed in the past by of their same race or sex – but would still allow fact-based discussions.

“Teachers are going, ‘That is an insult. You think we say that? You think we would do that?’” Jackson said.

Democrats uniformly opposed the bill over concerns this could lead to censorship in the classroom – and a chilling effect on teachers.

But Republicans argued it would’ve cleared up confusion on what’s allowed in classrooms – and what isn’t.

“I wish we could’ve done it this year to have gotten some clarity for parents and for educators, but it didn’t happen,” said Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield.

The provision that caused the most heartburn was one from the House.

It would’ve allowed parents to sue school districts if they disagreed with what was being taught – despite having remedies in the bill to allow them to work out their differences before any lawsuit was filed.

“What was the goal there? Because if the goal was about giving parents the ability to act on concerns, they already had it. So why do you need to sue a school district?” said Patrick Kelly of the Palmetto State Teachers Association.

Senators had removed the lawsuit language from the version of the bill they ed, but House insisted it remain in some capacity.

An attempt to reach a compromise opened the door for Democrats in the Senate to kill the bill.

“It is solely this lawsuit power that blew up this bill,” Kelly said.

of both parties expect this bill will be refiled again next year – and what it could look like is anyone’s guess.

This is an election year – so there are guaranteed to be new in both the state House and Senate.

There is a temporary law in place that does restrict what can be taught in South Carolina public schools. But educators say it’s more confusing than the bill that died. By failing to get that bill to the governor, they say lawmakers missed an opportunity to clear up some of that confusion.

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