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The State House Gavel
The State House Gavel shares updates about the South Carolina General Assembly, including legislative actions, debates and discussions. Featuring news and interviews, so you have access to the latest developments in policy and decisions that shape South Carolina’s future.

The State House Gavel: Senate, House push accountability for SC charter school authorizers

South Carolina Public Radio | By Maayan Schechter,
Gavin Jackson
Published February 11, 2026 at 6:51 AM EST
Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, speaks with Senate Education Committee Chairman Greg Hembree, R-Horry, on the charter school accountability bill, S. 454, in the Senate chamber the at the South Carolina Statehouse on Feb. 10 , 2026.
GAVIN JACKSON
Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, speaks with Senate Education Committee Chairman Greg Hembree, R-Horry, on the charter school accountability bill, S. 454, in the Senate chamber the at the South Carolina Statehouse on Feb. 10 , 2026.

Statehouse reporters Gavin Jackson and Maayan Schechter are back at the Capitol reporting what you need to know when lawmakers are in Columbia. They'll post news, important schedules, photos/videos and behind-the-scenes interviews with policymakers.

It's Wednesday, Feb. 11.

You're reading The State House Gavel, your daily reporter notebook by Maayan Schechter and Gavin Jackson that previews and captures what goes on at the South Carolina Statehouse.
It may indeed be another "wicked Wednesday" in the Capitol today.

By that we mean perhaps a longer than usual day.

The Senate gavels in at 1 p.m.

And with the chamber's charter school accountability legislation passed (see below the details) and on its way to the House, senators are expected turn their attention to two major pieces of tax policy:

  • H. 4216: An income tax bill sponsored by House Ways and Means Chairman Bruce Bannister, R-Greenville. The legislation cuts the state's top income tax rate to 5.39% from 6%, and raises the rate to 1.99% for anyone earning up to $30,000. Over time, if the state brings in enough revenue each year, the overall goal is to further cut the rate completely down to zero.
  • S. 768: A property tax reduction sponsored by Senate Finance Chairman Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee. The legislation would expand the state's homestead exemption law to $150,000 for anyone age 65 and up, but with limits on newcomers.

Across the Statehouse, the House gavels in at 10 a.m. — with no afternoon hearings scheduled.

The House plans to take up two bills passed out of the Ways and Means Committee:

  • H. 3477: Authored by Rep. Micah Caskey, R-Lexington, the bill would change the max amount beneficiaries can get through unemployment insurance benefits.
  • H. 5006: Sponsored by Rep. Brandon Newton, R-Lancaster, the legislation would offer small businesses a tax break, exempting the first $10,000 from business personal property taxes. The bill also offers a tax break to certain companies if their headquarters is located in South Carolina.

The House is also expected to tangle with H. 4755, by Dorchester Republican Rep. Gil Gatch, which would overhaul the Legislature's judicial candidate screening committee — the Judicial Merit Selection Commission — by removing lawmakers from the panel and instead give the governor full appointment powers over the screening. The General Assembly would retain the power to elect judges, which is enshrined in the state Constitution.

Notebook highlights:

  • Both chambers turn focus on South Carolina's charter school authorizers
  • Liquor bills advance, and what else the House did on Tuesday
  • Gov. Henry McMaster sounds off on NIL and the resolution giving Sen. Wes Climer a less costly exit ramp
Reporters Maayan Schechter and Gavin Jackson, host of This Week in South Carolina and the SC Lede podcast.
Andre Bellamy/SCETV
Reporters Maayan Schechter and Gavin Jackson, host of This Week in South Carolina and the SC Lede podcast.

Lawmakers take on charter school authorizers

The Senate on Tuesday quickly pushed through S. 454, legislation filed by Senate Education Chairman Greg Hembree, R-Horry, that lawmakers in both chambers hope will bring about transparency and clearer ethics rules for the state's charter school program and its authorizers.

Lawmakers also want to end the practice of "authorizer shopping," where unsatisfactory schools hop to other authorizers that will accept them.

With only one day's worth of true debate, the Senate unanimously advanced the bill out of the chamber, sending it to the House.

House Education and Public Works Chairwoman Shannon Erickson, R-Beaufort, has already declared to make the legislation a priority.

Hembree's proposal includes several measures that would increase oversight of charter schools, authorizers and for-profit management companies that can handle a school's payroll and budget and other operations. And it would enhance transparency of authorizers and schools, aligning them more with traditional public school disclosures.

It would also give the state Department of Education greater oversight powers.

Step back: Hembree's legislation stood still for years, but received a great deal of attention over the last year in large part because of media reports, particularly from The State newspaper, and last fall's Legislative Audit Council report, which brought increased attention over the Charter Institute at Erskine's travel, fundraising and donations and potential conflicts of interest. Many of those recommendations from that LAC report were inserted in Hembree's bill on Tuesday.

Look ahead: While the debate over charter school authorizer accountability was happening in the Senate, the House, via a Ways and Means budget panel, hauled authorizer Erskine Institute's CEO and Superintendent Cameron Runyan to testify for the second time after running out of time last week.

The hearing lasted well over an hour, with lawmakers especially fixated on Erskine Institute's international travel, school oversight, the relationship with for-profit management companies, the office space the Institute leases in a Main Street high rise and how the Institute expends taxpayer dollars.

This fall, the Institute plans to have 37,000 students enrolled — split between brick-and-mortar schools and virtual classrooms.

Per law, authorizers get to keep 2% of state money paid for students' education for oversight and administrative needs.

That accounted for about $5.6 million this year, Runyan said.

"We certainly don't get everything right," Runyan told the panel, adding but the Institute staff's "heart and every effort that we make" is for the children they educate.

Listen to some of the hearing below:

Charter Institute at Erskine's Cameron Runyan testifies at Ways and Means hearing 2.10.26

What's next?

In defending the Institute, and noting they had already made changes that aligned with the LAC's findings, Runyan told the panel that he welcomed accountability measures.

State Rep. Neal Collins, a Pickens Republican who sits on the Ways and Means subcommittee, told reporters after the hearing "there's still questions there" that he hopes can be answered in the future.

"My role is to protect public money," particularly on the education side, Collins told reporters.

Collins said he couldn't say whether there would be any funding changes in response to the audit. The House Ways and Means Committee is close to wrapping up hearings over the spending plan, with the expectation that the budget hits the floor in mid-March.

Read more:

Sen. Matt Leber, R-Charleston, speaks with Sen. Billy Garrett, R-Greenwood, in the Senate chamber at the South Carolina Statehouse on Feb. 10 , 2026.
GAVIN JACKSON
Sen. Matt Leber, R-Charleston, speaks with Sen. Billy Garrett, R-Greenwood, in the Senate chamber at the South Carolina Statehouse on Feb. 10 , 2026.

Bottoms up: House alcohol-related bills advance

A House Judiciary subcommittee advanced three liquor-related bills on Tuesday that are no stranger to the lower chamber.

  • H. 3857: Sponsored by Judiciary Chairman Weston Newton, R-Beaufort, the bill would allow for licensed retailers to offer curbside beer, wine and liquor sales and limited delivery within the same or a contiguous zip code as the store. The legislation creates strict regulations for who can deliver the alcohol and would require training, a driver to be at least 21 years old, and ID verification technology.
  • H. 4001: Sponsored by Rep. Mark Smith, R-Berkeley, the bill allow local governments to put a referendum on the ballot, asking voters whether to allow alcohol sales from 1 to 5 p.m. on Sundays. If rejected by voters county-wide, municipalities within the county would be allowed to do their own ballot referendums. Several liquor store owners testified that they've lost revenue from a lack of sales on Sunday, especially in tourism-heavy areas.
  • H. 5017: Sponsored by Rep. Bill Herbkersman, R-Beaufort, the bill would extend hours for tastings at micro distilleries and allow tastings on Sundays. Distilleries would only be allowed to dispense up to 4.5 ounces of liquor per consumer per day, and all tastings would still have to be held in conjunction with an on-premise tour.

What else did the House do Tuesday?

  • Unanimously passed H. 4586, a bill sponsored by Rep. Doug Gilliam, R-Union, that would add the U.S. Space Force to definitions of "military service" and "members of the armed forces," offering them the same state treatment as other military branch members.
  • Unanimously passed H. 4188, sponsored by Rep. Tommy Pope, R-York, that would in part allow remains to be cremated 30 days from the date of death or date of discovery if the person cannot be identified or goes unclaimed.
  • Unanimously passed H. 4635, sponsored by Rep. Brandon Newton, R-Lancaster, that would allow for gyms to give automatic renewal notices via electronic means.
  • Following the Senate, the House unanimously overrode the governor's veto of S. 623, sponsored by Sen. Stephen Goldfinch, R-Georgetown, which would exempt Georgetown County from specific building requirements for properties within, or affected by, "the limit of moderate wave action line" as of a May 9, 2023, flood insurance rate map.
Rep. Joe Bustos, R-Charleston, talks with Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, in the House chamber at the South Carolina Statehouse on Feb. 10 , 2026.
GAVIN JACKSON
Rep. Joe Bustos, R-Charleston, talks with Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, in the House chamber at the South Carolina Statehouse on Feb. 10 , 2026.

Gov backs resolution for Climer exit

Reporters briefly caught up with Gov. McMaster on Tuesday to check his temperature on a couple of floating bills in the Statehouse.

The first proposal, S. 880, says if a legislator "submits an irrevocable resignation" on or before March 1 this year, then the timeline to fill that seat will follow the candidate filing, primary and general election schedule of all 124 House districts.

The legislator in question is Sen. Wes Climer, a York County Republican who is running to succeed Congressman Ralph Norman to represent the 5th District in Congress.

Already, the resolution has passed the Senate and is expected to clear the House before it heads to McMaster's desk.

McMaster told reporters if the resolution doesn't "hurt anything," and saves money, then he backs it to help avoid a separate election.

Whether he would support making the resolution permanent law, McMaster reiterated anything that would save money, he supports.

Reporters also asked McMaster about H. 4902, legislation that would limit public disclosure of NIL college and university revenue-sharing contracts with college athletes.

The Senate Education Committee will hold its first hearing over the legislation — the bill bypassed a smaller subcommittee — this morning.

Here's what the governor said:

Gov. Henry McMaster on NIL revenue-sharing bill H. 4902 on 2.10.26

Reporters also asked about the public criticism lodged by Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey toward McMaster's office.

Last week, the Edgefield Republican called the governor's office "dismissive and disrespectful" toward the Senate, criticism tied to the governor's nomination and screening over Joel Anderson to run the state's Department of Corrections.

In case you missed it, here are Massey's comments below:

S.C. Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, on executive appointments 2.5.26

McMaster, who said he's had a good relationship with legislators, told reporters Tuesday his door is always open, whether to talk about this particular issue or any others.

"I'm available," he said.

McMaster said he had not heard from Massey.

FILE - South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster greets lawmakers ahead of his State of the State address on Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022, in Columbia, S.C. Democrats in South Carolina get another shot at loosening the firm grasp Republican have on statewide politics as voting ends Tuesday for the 2022 elections. But it's likely to be a tough fight.(AP Photo/Meg Kinnard, File)
Meg Kinnard/AP
/
AP
FILE - South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster greets lawmakers ahead of his State of the State address on Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022, in Columbia, S.C.

Statehouse daily planner (2/11)

SC House

SC Senate

SC governor

  • 4:15 p.m. — Gov. Henry McMaster to attend the 15th annual South Carolina Automotive Summit in Greenville

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Maayan Schechter
Maayan Schechter (My-yahn Schek-ter) is a news reporter with South Carolina Public Radio and ETV. She worked at South Carolina newspapers for a decade, previously working as a reporter and then editor of The State’s S.C. State House and politics team, and as a reporter at the Aiken Standard and the Greenville News. She grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and graduated from the University of North Carolina-Asheville in 2013.
See stories by Maayan Schechter
Gavin Jackson
Gavin Jackson graduated with a visual journalism degree from Kent State University in 2008 and has been in the news industry ever since. He has worked at newspapers in Ohio, Louisiana and most recently in South Carolina at the Florence Morning News and Charleston Post and Courier.
See stories by Gavin Jackson