Education

As a teacher, I find that the number one way to ensure South Carolina is prepared for the future is by ensuring that our children get a top-notch education. There are many ways that we can ensure that our education system improves. Many of them come back to the idea of innovation. If we want to see a change in our schools, we must cut red tape and allow districts, schools, and teachers to be innovators. We can improve our education system in many ways, and I have categorized a few of them below.

Addressing the Teacher shortage by:

• unencumbered planning time

• reform salary structure

• streamlined evaluation process

• allow innovation in teacher certification programs

Modernize Testing and Instructional items by:

• reduction of state testing not required by federal law

• protection of instructional time by limiting the percentage of the time that can be used for state and district testing or benchmarks to 3% or less

• competency-based education instead of simply seat time

Governmental clarity

• strengthening local control of education

• clarification and streamlining of the different state agencies that control education (SCDE, EOC, and State Board)

• financial transparency to see where districts are using funds and making sure the money is making it to the classroom and not feeding the bureaucracy.

These are just a few ways to make sure that our education is improved and able to provide a quality education for every student in South Carolina, but there are many other ways and education should be a priority as we try to reverse the negative impact that the pandemic has had on our students.

Business

The pandemic has been brutal on all of us, but it has been especially hard on our small business owners. South Carolina must support our small businesses. We must focus not only on large businesses with tax incentives but also on the “mom and pop” businesses that are the bedrock of the community. We also need to create a single point of collection and administration for the business license tax to streamline the process for businesses. 

Infrastructure

Anyone that has tried to travel around the Lowcountry can see that our roads are not built to handle the volume of cars from our increased population. We must update our roads and build new ones to ease congestion problems. This means making sure that the flyover at Main road and Hwy 17 is completed soon to alleviate the bottleneck that is created for those turning to go to Johns Island. We also need to make sure that funding is made available to complete a version of 526 to create a point of access for Johns Island. We must improve our roads. There are 1440 minutes in a day, so let's make sure that we spend as few of them sitting in traffic as possible. 

Taxes

South Carolina needs tax reforms that make us more competitive within our region while also maintaining funding for important programs. We are currently 34th in the nation for personal income tax and 19th for corporate income tax. I support implementing the tax foundation’s “option b” plan from their “South Carolina: A Road Map For Tax Reform” that they published in 2018. Some of the notable changes to the tax system would include:

• lowering the corporate income tax rate to 4 percent

• Conforming to the federal policy of full expensing of machinery and equipment purchases

• repealing the antiquated corporate license fee

• adopting a 5 percent single rate individual income tax with a $12,000 standard deduction and the retention of the personal exemption,

• and other reforms

If we implement this plan, it would take us up to the 11th best state in the nation for income tax and 10th for corporate income tax. Updating our tax system in these ways will make South Carolina competitive within our region and improve the lives of South Carolinians.