For nearly a decade, Republican Gov. Henry McMaster has called on state lawmakers to raise the minimum starting pay for South Carolina teachers.
On Monday, McMaster presented his executive budget, his final spending wish list for the Legislature that includes a last $150 million ask to raise the state's start pay for teachers to $50,500.
It's a request — up from the current $48,500 beginning teacher salary — that is likely to be answered in the budget that starts July 1, House Speaker Murrell Smith indicated in an interview with SCETV's SC Lede last week.
"This represents a 68% increase since 2017," McMaster said Monday at the Statehouse. "South Carolina's required minimum starting teacher salary continues to exceed that of both Georgia and North Carolina."
Also for K-12 schools, McMaster wants the Legislature to spend about $8.7 million every year on universal free breakfasts for every public school student, no matter their household income.
The governor said that's expected to cover more than 4 million meals.
"We're trying to fill their minds, we ought to fill their bellies so they can fill their minds more easily," said McMaster, who said he'd support a future universal free lunch effort.
"The system would operate better if it were universal," McMaster said. "The cost is minimal compared to the positive impact."
The governor's request is one of dozens of asks out of a more than $14 billion state spending plan that includes calling on lawmakers to spend millions more on infrastructure projects, conservation, law enforcement, education and health care.
In addition to funding requests, McMaster says he will also will push for the state Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office to hire an outside group to do a comprehensive study looking at how the state's population surge will affect roads and government services over the next 10 and 20 years.
The governor's staff said the study will look at the impact of the population growth — economists expect it to hit 6.6 million people by 2040 — on health care, higher education, energy, water supply and gaps as the population also trends older.
"You can't plan for things if you don't know what you're planning for," McMaster said. "The old saying, if you can't measure it, you can't manage it."
McMaster's budget proposal also includes:
- $1.1 billion in new money, mostly one-time money, for state infrastructure projects
- $115 million one time for a cancer hospital at the Medical University of South Carolina
- $58 million for land preservation
- $47 million annually for foster care services
- $20 million in one-time money to bolster the state's Agribusiness Fund
- $17 million per year for the corrections department to hire more employees
- $5 million per year for a maternal and child health home visitation program
The Legislature returns for the final year of the two-year session on Tuesday.
