- BIG STORY: S.C. teachers see millions in merit bonuses
- MORE NEWS: Fate unclear for S.C. bill to criminalize abortion
- LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail: Almost home
- BRACK: Don’t be dumb about vaccinations
- MYSTERY PHOTO: Where’s this speech being given?
- FEEDBACK: Send us your thoughts
S.C. teachers see millions in merit bonuses
By Jack O’Toole, Capitol bureau | South Carolina teachers and principals are using terms like “phenomenal” and “a confidence booster” to describe $4.6 million in teacher merit-based bonuses distributed through Beemok Education’s Excellence in Teaching Awards.
Some 526 teachers in 39 schools across the state earned an average bonus of $8,800, Beemok officials said about the public-private partnership. The largest bonus was $57,250.
Awards function on Sept. 28, 2025, in Charleston | Excellence in
Teaching Awards
For Charleston County English teacher Sydney Carroll, that $57,250 bonus is “life-changing.”
“I’ve been a teacher my whole life,” she told Statehouse Report. “So I’ve just never seen that amount of money.”
Beemok Education is the brainchild of Charleston philanthropists Ben and Kelly Navarro. In addition to the teacher bonus program, Beemok funds four high-performing schools in Charleston and Spartanburg, as well as the state’s largest privately-funded college scholarship program for low-income students.
Carroll teaches at one of those public schools — Meeting Street Elementary and Middle-Brentwood. Like all 39 schools where teachers are currently eligible for Beemok bonuses, Brentwood is what’s known as a Title I school — meaning that at least 40% of its students are poor.
Her outsized bonus for 2024-25 teaching was based on outsized results — the more than two-year jump in academic performance that her students demonstrated in standardized testing.
“At the start of the year, they had this idea that they didn’t deserve an education,” Carroll said of the 75 students she taught last year. “And I just kept telling them, ‘Everything I’m doing and everything you’re doing is because you deserve this education.’”
And what they were doing was challenging, she noted — reading and analyzing the full text of works like All Quiet on the Western Front, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twice Toward Justice, which tells the story of Montgomery, Ala., civil rights activist Claudette Colvin.
“My students are incredible,” Carroll said. “And I just want everyone to know how awesome they are, because a lot of them have definitely grown up not knowing that.”
‘Common-sense principle’ or ‘divisive for schools’?
At one level, the Beemok bonus tale is exactly what it looks like — a feel-good story about chronically underpaid public school teachers being generously rewarded for a job well done.
But as Beemok Education President Josh Bell noted in an Oct. 2 interview, there’s a substantive policy debate roiling just under the surface.
“The way that we pay teachers in our country is disconnected from the outcomes they help students achieve,” Bell said. “These awards take a common-sense principle that’s used in every other organization and business and says your exceptional performers deserve to be rewarded.”
The awards honor that principle by demanding extraordinary performance, Bell said. To win a cash award, a teacher must raise all her students’ performances by at least 1.2 grade years or elevate individual students’ by at least a quartile in reading or math.
It’s an idea that S.C. Education Superintendent Ellen Weaver has endorsed rhetorically and financially, with a 2024 state grant that allowed Beemok to expand from 29 to 39 schools.
“By rewarding impact and celebrating results, we’re not only honoring our best teachers—we’re setting a higher standard for what’s possible,” Weaver said in a release. “South Carolina students deserve nothing less, and we need more bold innovation like this to raise the bar for every child in every classroom.”
But that’s where SC Education Association President Dena Crews says, in effect, not so fast.
“I’m very happy for the teachers who won these awards,” Crews told Statehouse Report. “But state money needs to be used to raise salaries for every teacher, not just the ones whose students did well on a single standardized test.”
What’s more, Crews said, she worries that merit pay schemes could be “divisive for schools,” pitting one teacher against another in a field where collaboration is key.
“There’s more to student growth than test scores,” she argued. “In some cases, just getting the student to take the test at all is a win regardless of the score.”
And that’s the core of the debate according to people on both sides. For merit-pay skeptics, it’s about fairness in what they call “real world” classrooms. For proponents, it’s about demanding excellence — and making sure it’s rewarded when found.
“A teacher whose students are performing 60% better than the teacher down the hall really is overperforming,” Bell said. “And we continue to hear from teachers and principals just how much of a game-changer this is.”
‘Not just about the money’
Excellence in Teaching feted hundreds of Excellence in Teaching award winners in a Sept.28 ceremony at one of Charleston’s swankiest locations — The Charleston Place Hotel, purchased in 2021 by Navarro’s Beemok Hospitality.
One of the speakers that afternoon was Janice Malone, principal of Charleston’s Sanders-Clyde Elementary — and until recently, she told Statehouse Report, a skeptic of the merit pay program.
“When I first heard about it, I thought there had to be some kind of a catch,” Malone said. “But when they said they just wanted to recognize excellent teachers in our Title I schools, I thought about how hard my teachers work and decided, ‘Why not? Let’s give it a shot.’”
And after seeing the program in action, she said, she came to appreciate its benefits — particularly in helping to attract and retain good teachers in a genuinely challenging environment.
According to state statistics, 95% of Sanders-Clyde students live in poverty.
“There was a time when even I didn’t want to come here because of the challenges,” she said. “But our team is so committed to these students — and I wanted to make sure they got the recognition they deserved.”
But as meaningful as the award bonuses can be, Malone stressed, in the end “it’s not just about the money.”
Even more, she said, it’s about recognizing the passion and expertise that great teachers bring to work with them every day — and the difference that can make in a child’s life.
“It’s like that famous quote,” Malone said. “My teacher believed I was smart, and so I was.”
Which isn’t to say the money doesn’t help.
Carroll said she’s used the bonus to pay down her student loans and sock a meaningful chunk away in savings. But even in her case, where the cash was life changing, she said the other benefits were what mattered most.
First, she said, she was excited for her students, including one particularly hard-working learner who leapfrogged from reading on a fifth grade level to ninth grade in just nine months — progress she called insane.
Second was something more personal — “healing” she called it.
“I know this might sound silly,” she said. “But hearing my parents tell their friends they’re proud of me for this work hit so hard. They’re incredible people — and hearing that pride just means so much.”
- Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com
Fate unclear for S.C. bill to criminalize abortion
Staff reports | As a state Senate subcommittee began debate Wednesday in Columbia over a bill to criminalize abortion, hundreds protested at the S.C. Statehouse.
The nine-hour hearing ended without a vote, but the subcommittee’s leader said he hoped to have another hearing to refine the bill. Outside of the hearing room, the air was filled with tense emotion, according to media reports. A giant I.U.D. blow-up was tethered on the Statehouse grounds.
The bill, S. 323 by Anderson GOP Sen. Richard Cash, would outlaw abortion and eliminate exceptions for rape, incest and fatal fetal anomalies that are allowed under the state’s current six-week abortion ban. And it would send women who defied the proposed law to prison – a provision that led at least two anti-abortion groups to oppose the current measure.
Also at issue are the issues of in vitro fertilization and emergency contraception. Cash insisted his bill would have no impact on either. But doctors and attorneys pointed to specific language that could outlaw both, depending on how courts ultimately interpret the statute’s definitions.
S.C. Citizens for Life, one of the state’s oldest anti-abortion groups, criticized the current bill in a statement that opposed “any legislation that criminalizes post-aborted women. Abortion providers are the ones who should be held legally accountable, not women, pregnancy care centers, counselors and pastors.” Other anti-abortion groups supported the bill, which would create the nation’s strictest abortion law.
Meanwhile, pro-choice advocates rejected the proposed measure. Former state GOP Sen. Katrina Shealy of Lexington County, who was ousted from office in the November election for supporting women’s reproductive rights, said the removal of exceptions in the proposal sends a “chilling message” to victims. She was not allowed to speak at the hearing.
Another opponent, League of Women Voters of S.C. Vice President Lynn Teague, told Statehouse Report she worried about the narrow, sectarian impetus for the bill.
“There was an awful lot of talk of God yesterday,” she said, noting that a number of supporters invoked scripture during the hearing. “But under the Constitution, we’re not a Christian nation and we were never intended to be. We were intended to be a nation that respected all traditions.”
She added, “I respect the depth and sincerity of everyone’s beliefs, but no one has the right to impose their beliefs on everyone else in the state.”
As the hearing closed, the fate of the bill remained unclear, with Sen. Minority Leader Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, telling reporters he didn’t believe there were enough votes to pass it.
And while Gov. Henry McMaster, long a supporter of pro-life legislation including the current six-week ban, hasn’t signalled outright opposition, his public comments have suggested that he considers the issue settled for now.
“I know there are going to be more arguments, more debates,” he told reporters last month. “But I’m comfortable with where we’ve rested.”
In other recent news
POLITICS: Two S.C. gubernatorial candidates back death penalty for child rape. U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace and S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson publicly supported motions of the death penalty for those convicted of child rape.
Confirmed measles outbreak plagues South Carolina’s Upstate. A measles outbreak is spreading concern in the Upstate of South Carolina where eight cases have been reported to the South Carolina Department of Public Health.
S.C.’s 40,000 military members remain on duty without pay amid federal government shutdown. The nearly 40,000 active duty military members stationed in South Carolina continue to work without pay amid the ongoing shutdown of the national government.
S.C. judge rejects request to block State voter data from going to feds. A S.C. judge on Wednesday rejected a voter’s request to keep the State Election Commission from sharing voter data with the U.S. Department of Justice.
S.C. lawmaker wants more legislative oversight of sheriffs. S.C. Rep. Travis Moore, R-Spartanburg, says the seven sheriffs who’ve been forced from office for misconduct since 2019 demonstrate the need for reform.
How many data centers are coming to S.C.? State officials aren’t sure. S.C. has become a hotspot for energy-hungry data centers, but state officials can’t say how many are planning to locate here — or even how many there are now.
USDA to give $38.3M to South Carolina farmers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture will provide more than $38.3 million to help South Carolina producers recover from Hurricane Helene.
- Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com
Almost home
Award-winning cartoonist Robert Ariail has a special knack for poking a little fun in just the right way. This week, he takes a jab at political yard signs that are starting to crop up as elections heat up.
- Love this week’s cartoon or hate it? Did he go too far, or not far enough? Send your thoughts to feedback@statehousereport.com.
Don’t be dumb about vaccinations
By Andy Brack | Did you get your flu shot yet? How about your Covid vaccine? Or did you and your kids get vaccinated for measles?
No? Well that’s why the state health department is forced to issue this kind of statement:
“Measles is highly contagious and there is risk for continued, rapid spread of the disease in the Upstate among communities with low immunization rates,” said the state’s epidemiologist, Dr. Linda Bell, on Thursday.
Just having to issue such a statement must drive public health officials crazy. Why? Because measles was officially declared eliminated in the United States by the World Health Organization in 2000 – until preening politicians and anti-vaccination activists got in the business of spreading outright falsehoods about vaccinations. If people would turn off information from non-scientists and listen to the facts, they might understand vaccines are an incredibly strong treatment to keep communicable diseases at bay.
But no, they’d rather believe something they turn up in “research” based on some stupid post on the Internet than listen to scientists and doctors who actually know what they’re talking about.
We wouldn’t be having measles outbreaks in this country if the weirdo world would stop listening to the nonsense spewing out of the non-science mouths of “vaccine skeptics” like U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Yep – the guy who claimed a worm was eating his brain, who dumped a dead bear carcass in Central Park and who can’t seem to get facts straight whenever testifying before Congress.
According to the state Department of Public Health (DPH), South Carolina now has eight confirmed cases of measles in the Upstate. While it may not sound like a lot, remember that measles spread more quickly than rabbits making new rabbits. And what’s most worrisome to scientists, here and across the country, is how the unvaccinated people who have the disease got it from unknown sources, which indicates what Bell called “unrecognized community spread.”
She said the department anticipates more cases will be identified.
“(We) implore community members to act responsibly,” she said. “If you are ill, stay home. Notify a health care provider by phone of symptoms suggestive of measles before visiting a clinic. Follow guidance for control measures and cooperate with DPH investigations.”
The painful virus spreads easily by air when someone with the disease breathes, coughs or sneezes.
“At this time, it is very important to get better protection against measles spread in our communities by increasing measles vaccination coverage.”
Put more bluntly, if you are unvaccinated for measles, stop being stupid. Measles vaccines work and are safe, preventing infections with a 97% rate of effectiveness, according to the department.
“Measles virus can remain infectious in the air in a confined area for up to two hours after the sick person is gone from the area. People with measles should stay home from work and school and avoid contact with others for four days after their rash first appears.”
If you’re not vaccinated against measles – or against flu or Covid, for that matter – talk with a real doctor, listen and get the shots. Doing so is a community responsibility because it helps to keep everyone, including you and your loved ones, safer.
- Learn more online about measles from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: cdc.gov/measles/vaccines/index.html
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Where’s this speech being given?
This week’s mystery photo headline is somewhere in South Carolina. Where – and for bonus points – what can you tell us about it? Send your best guess – plus hometown and name – to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Last week’s mystery, “Big lizard in my backyard,” shows one of the murals recently painted in North Charleston as part of the MELT Mural Festival.
Few sleuths pegged the photo off Reynolds Avenue, but hats off to George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; Bill Segars of Hartsville; David Lupo of Mount Pleasant; and Jay Altman of Columbia.
- SHARE: If you have a Mystery Photo to share, please send it to us – and make sure you tell us what it is!
Send us your thoughts
Please send us your thoughts about politics and policy in South Carolina, but make sure to leave phone numbers and hometowns to help us verify them for publication. We publish non-defamatory comments, but unless you provide your contact information – name and hometown, plus a phone number used only by us for verification – we can’t publish your views.
- Have a comment? Send your letters or comments to: feedback@statehousereport.com. Make sure to provide your contact details (name, hometown and phone number for verification. Letters are limited to 150 words.
Statehouse Report, founded in 2001 as a weekly legislative forecast that informs readers about what is going to happen in South Carolina politics and policy, is provided by email to you at no charge every Friday.
- Editor and publisher: Andy Brack, 843.670.3996
- Statehouse bureau chief: Jack O’Toole
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