public schools

This episode of the South Carolina Lede for February 13, 2021 features: an update from State Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman on vaccination plans for teachers; a recap of all of the activity at the state house this week; updates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on double masking and COVID-19 vaccine dosage schedules; and much more.

This episode of the South Carolina Lede for January 5, 2021, features an update on Gov. Henry McMaster's bout with COVID-19, a look at the federal relief funds flowing to small businesses and schools in the Palmetto State, details from DHEC officials about the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, and more.

On this episode of the South Carolina Lede for December 15, 2020, we bring you all the action from the South Carolina Electoral College meeting in Columbia on Monday, take a look at the COVID-19 vaccine rollout process as the first shipments of the Pfizer vaccine reach the Palmetto State, speak with a University of South Carolina Law professor on his new book tracing the history of education in the country, and much more.

Like some other aspects of the ongoing pandemic, how public schools in South Carolina should open is now fully embroiled in politics.

Despite the continuing spread of the coronavirus, President Trump is urging the nation’s schools to open this fall, and to provide full-time face-to-face instruction. Last week GOP Gov. Henry McMaster, an ardent supporter of the President, adopted the same position, and called for the state schools to provide in-class instruction for five days each week if parents make that choice.

Education Superintendent Spearman, District Superintendents, and Democrats Criticize as Premature and Unsafe

While there appears to be overwhelming support to re-open South Carolina’s public schools this fall, the question of how to open them safely has become a contentious and highly political issue. Republican Gov. Henry McMaster this week said despite the growing pandemic in the state, schools must open, and that parents must be given the option of sending their children to school five days a week.

When Charleston journalist Brian Hicks first heard the story of U.S. District Judge Julius Waties Waring, he knew what he must do; write a book about it.  He says the son of a Confederate soldier became an unlikely civil rights "hero," and that's a word Hicks doesn't often use. Yet, Waring's name is still fairly unfamiliar, and he was an eighth generation Charlestonian.

  As you are probably aware, universities, colleges and private k-12 schools often have dozens of people working to bring private financial support to their institutions. Our next guest says that his organization is the only entity working to connect private donors to all public K-12 public schools across the state.

Mike Switzer interviews Trip Dubard, executive director of South Carolina Future Minds, based in Florence, SC.