SC K-12 teachers pay raise locked in for next year. Here’s how educator pay is changing

How much teachers will earn has been locked into for the upcoming school year.

State senators Wednesday passed a $13.8 billion spending plan for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. As part of that plan, the Senate agreed with the House’s proposal to increase the starting salary for teachers in the state to $47,000 a year, up from $42,500.

Gov. Henry McMaster has said he wants to bring the starting salary up to $50,000 by 2026.

The minimum salary schedule, which pays teachers based off years of experience and level of education attained, would extend to 28 years from 23 years.

Districts have the option to pay teachers above the state’s minimum salary schedule. In South Carolina, 67 out of the state’s 73 traditional public school districts pay have a starting salary less than $47,000.

The proposed spending plans do not include reducing the number of lanes for years of continuing education credit on the teacher salary schedule from five lanes to two, an idea pushed by McMaster.

However, the pay differentials between the lanes is narrowed. House Ways and Means opted for this move as it proposed an incremental approach to reducing the salary schedule lanes over the next few years.

State Sen. Sean Bennett, R-Dorchester, said the Senate budget puts 45% of new annual dollars toward K-12 education.

“It wasn’t too terribly long ago that we were significantly low on the starting salary and we made commitments over the years to increase teacher pay and we’re continuing that in this budget,” Bennett said.

The budget also increases the teacher salary supply stipend to $400 from $350.

Paying teachers more is meant to help address the growing teacher shortage in the state.

When the school year began, more than 1,613 teaching positions in the state were vacant, up from 1,474 teaching positions at the beginning of the 2022-23 school year.

The House and Senate spending plans have slight differences.

The House budget spends nearly $230 million on state aid to classrooms. The Senate budget spends only $200 million. The difference would have to be worked out in a conference committee between the two chambers before the final spending plan goes to the governor.

The higher dollar amount in the House proposal provides more flexibility to school districts, especially rural districts that have smaller property tax bases and limited business bases, when affording the ongoing cost of higher salaries in future years.

School districts could use the additional money in the House plan to meet inflationary pressures they’re facing, said Patrick Kelly, the director of governmental affairs for the Palmetto State Teachers Association.

Kelly points to how districts have educators who would not be covered by a state salary schedule such as instructional aides or paraprofessionals.

“The additional house money gives districts an additional capacity to meet localized needs. And to make sure that they are addressing the salary needs of all staff, not just certified staff, so we can make sure every position in a school is staffed with a highly qualified individual,” Kelly said.

As lawmakers allocate money for state aid in a lump sum, the cash is distributed to school districts through a formula. Charter school enrollment has grown faster than traditional public schools leading to charter schools seeing more money, said Debbie Elmore, the director of governmental relations for the S.C. School Board Association.

“The estimates of what they think they’re gonna get have not panned out for especially some of those smaller rural districts,” Elmore said.

College tuition freeze

A plan by the Senate to allow colleges and universities to increase tuition rates for in state students by up to 2% is now out of the budget.

Senators opted to take out the provision to allow tuition increases even if the schools take the tuition mitigation money meant to freeze tuition rates for in-state students.

Ahead of this year’s budget deliberations, colleges and universities asked for $128 million more in annual money from state coffers to pay for tuition mitigation, increased scholarships and increase cost of operation.

The Senate budget includes $67.9 million in tuition mitigation money for the state’s four year colleges, and an additional $10 million for technical colleges.

The House budget included $57.5 million for the state’s colleges and universities.

But the idea to allow schools to increase tuition was not supported by McMaster and most likely would not be supported by the House and would have been a point of contention during a conference committee to finalize a spending plan.

Senators included a provision in its budget plan to require schools instituting a tuition or fee increase to provide an analysis of why an increase is necessary and all the cost-saving measures taken to minimize a tuition hike.

“We don’t know how much of that (money) that they asked for was necessary or was that for everything they wanted to do and maybe a tremendous raise on increasing the number of faculty by 10%. We don’t know what that entails. That’s, the whole problem,” said state Sen. Ronnie Cromer, R-Newberry, who oversees higher education spending on the Senate Finance Committee.