BRICE FIELDER CHECKS IN 5/20/26

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Yeah, thanks for joining us. All right, so we are at the uh you know almost the conclusion of our uh our legislative session. They did come back to talk about redistricting, but as far as uh the education-related bills, what could you give us an update on what passed regarding K through 12?

SPEAKER_03 0:46

Sure. So in uh traditional fashion, we saw a lot of activities in the late stretch of the legislative session. Um that includes passage of the much talked about grade floor ban bill, which is a bill to increase academic integrity and keep grades more honest and accountable and fair. And basically what it does is it prohibits policies that set uh minimum grades or grade floors and that students would receive a minimum grade regardless of the work that they turn in or the quality of that work. Um, and so that was signed by the governor this week. Um and when it's passed, South Carolina becomes the first state actually in the country to legislatively address this issue. And I'll just say on that when we uh put out a news release, I almost immediately heard from um teachers and parents in North Carolina who actually uh said that the same sort of issues that's going on uh with grade four uh in their state is happening too. So I don't think this is an isolated issue, and it's great to see South Carolina lead on this. Um, there was also a new school safety uh bill that was passed, and what it says is that schools have to expel a student who knowfully, or excuse me, unknowingly and willfully threaten someone with a weapon. So obviously this seems very reasonable on its case, and this is something that actually many teachers supported because you know we're seeing an increase in uh threats and behavioral issues at schools. And this is something that a lot of teachers cite as a reason that they're leaving the job. You know, we talk a lot about sort of raising teacher pay, of course, that's important, but having safe schools uh and safe classrooms is you know order number one for where our priorities need to be uh when looking at schools. So that bill passed, and I believe it was signed by the governor this week. And then um finally, we've talked about it on this program before, uh, but the Student Physical Privacy Act. And basically this codifies a rule that we had already that says that school bathrooms and locker rooms are going to be designated based on biological sex, and it creates uh liabilities for schools uh or districts rather uh that violate that provision. So there is some teeth in this bill, and and students will have those sections uh on campus.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

That's awesome. I'm very in favor of that. I don't understand how that's even in why you have to codify something like that. It's so crazy. Um, I wanted to just go back a step and talk about safety in the schools. And you can you just go over that again? So head this is heading to Governor Henry McMaster's desk that if a if a student threatens someone with violence just like via words, um how is it just tell us what that's about.

SPEAKER_03 3:33

Yeah, so that there's a few um elements or bars that have to be met, but it basically creates a a minimum consequence for students that knowingly and willfully, and those words are explicitly in this law, threaten someone with a weapon. And there also has to be a reasonable expectation that the student could carry uh this threat out, right? So these aren't anti-threats. There's some evidence that says um that uh there's possible intent behind this or capability behind this. And this comes as we're seeing an increase in online threats. Um and swatting, I'm sure you might be familiar with this. This idea that you're falsely calling the police or a SWAT team on someone and making up a threat. And so this is really intended to crack down on this behavior and get that really small fraction of students uh that are engaging in it outside of the school or at least create penalties for a period. Um and so again, this this just creates a minimum rule in state law that says if a student knowingly and willfully threatens someone with a weapon, they have to be expelled for at least a year.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Yeah, I'm I'm just like thinking about all these things, and uh you mentioned that a lot of teachers have been, you know, seeing a rise in threats and evacuations, and they're doing all these active shooter trainings, and it just r increases a lot of anxiety um amongst people. And uh I I was just thinking, you know, I was talking to a teacher that said, I I retired, they want me to wear a panic alert button and I have to like press it multiple times, and I'm just like, what are we doing here? I'm out. So you can pay people as much as you want. We just talked about the Ori County uh school board earlier. We were talking about it how they um, you know, have the starting salary now, they want to uh in the budget to to be $54,000 annually. But you know what? Like if people don't feel comfortable and safe or they feel like a target at all times, or that they are the ones that are like the final um, you know, in the trenches, the final stop before you know the kit. Like they didn't sign up for that. You know, they signed up to educate children. They did not sign up to carry weapons, to defend 30 little lives of beautiful children against uh madmen and women. Like like that's not part of uh teacher training. I mean, maybe now it is, but uh that's really upsetting. Like, so you have to, in order to become a teacher, you know, it's not like you're becoming a police officer and you're like, I'm going to protect and serve and wear a vest and go to gun training and have a dog and uh have a car and you know you're literally going to be a school teacher. But now you are being tasked with protecting children in the classroom and being part of that solution. That's just that's like really sad.

SPEAKER_03 6:47

Yeah, it it's a lot of it's a lot of added responsibility on top of the already big responsibility of teaching kids, right? And we hear from the teachers a lot, and they talk, they point to several things that are driving them out of the profession. Um, school safety and and uh behavioral issues is a major factor. Um they also don't want to be micromanaged, right? You know, they went to school and sort of learned how to teach students, so let them do their jobs, and there are a number of things that they feel like their hands are tied. And I think actually that goes back to the grading for issue, where in many districts this was a policy, and really, regardless of what student performance was, they were getting a minimum grade. So I think um really this when you look at some of the legislation that passed or was considered this year, um a lot of it uh was aimed at improving uh the teaching profession. And I think that's great because having a high quality teacher, uh, if if you sort of meet this the school safety standard, having a high quality teacher is the biggest uh contributor to student success.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

Yeah. Yeah, I just it's just the teaching profession has completely changed since 1999. You know, ever since the first mass shooting. It's really changed. And they have like more l um they're outnumbered. They have kids that are b have all these outside influences. I mean, they try to control a little bit with cell phone, you know, usage and banning, but um, you know, the influences are still there. Uh the other hours that they're not in school, they're at home gaming platforms and social media and bullying and everything has been uh 100x because of internet and social media and gaming. And the teachers are on the front lines right behind the parents, and it's like it's it's really unbelievable what's um how how can we fortify schools so everyone can feel like they could just focus on teaching and learning? I'm I'm sure you hear that a lot, especially with uh doing what you're doing with the s school board uh training and all that. How does that come into play with the school board?

SPEAKER_03 9:06

Well, this is an issue that they all think about a lot. And as you mentioned, we had a school board candidate training um this past weekend here in the Lexington area. Um and one of the things that we sort of stressed is coming into this profession, there's gonna be a lot of issues and questions that you're gonna have to take up, a lot of distractions even. And we always stress that sort of through it all, you you keep the focus on student achievement. And what does the district actually need to be doing? What decisions can school board members be making that uh lead to better student outcomes? And so school safety, look, if our schools aren't safe, if our students don't feel safe, if our teachers don't feel safe, if there is increasing, you know, disruptive behavior, then we cannot expect students to learn and schools to do their job. And that is the job of our schools and school districts is what did students learn? You know, what you know, what skills do they ultimately leave the system with? Um, and so that that has to be first and foremost.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

We're speaking with Bryce Fielder of Carolina's Academic Leadership Network. Um, there was something else in the article uh that I was reading about uh legislation that was passed. High school athletics, uh it says here legislators finalized a bill requiring train requiring changes to the South Carolina High School League, which is the governing body for high school sports. Do you know what that bill is about?

SPEAKER_03 10:33

I don't know the specifics of that legislation. We do occasionally see athletics bills. For example, you'll see um proposals that would let uh homeschool or private school students participate in public school sports if that option isn't available to them at their particular school. Um, but I don't know the specifics of uh of that bill that you that you just mentioned.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

It says here some in the Statehouse initially were aiming to fully abolish the league and replace it with a state-run org association, but back down after its longtime commissioner announced his retirement in March. So this legislation will increase state oversight instead of running of the independent organization and reshapes its executive committee. Sounds like they had a beef with that longtime commissioner. Uh and whatever issues he was dealing with. Uh anything that you are disappointed that didn't get through? I mean, I don't know, is did anything die in the process that you, you know, are sad to see go?

SPEAKER_03 11:38

Yeah, one bill bill we were tracking this session with the uh parental rights act. And if you remember, this was set up for success earlier this year when it passed, I believe back in February out of the House. Um, and on the Senate side, I don't believe it even received a committee hearing. Um, and if you'll recall, this bill would uh set in law a series of fundamental parental rights, give them more access to uh what students are learning in the classroom, and then create a uh process that that uh parents could address um issues that arise that could be appealed up to the state board of education. And so um that bill did not pass. We saw a lot of local support, parent support for this, and like I said, it passed overwhelmingly in the House earlier this year, um, but that was not given a hearing. So that that was uh disappointment.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

Something tells me the pseudo-teacher unions put the kibosh on that with the Senate. Somebody must be donating to someone in that committee. I'm just gonna take a wild guess there because they don't want parents' oversight at all. And uh honestly, the Moms for Liberty and all these other organizations that were born out of COVID homeschooling was because of parents saying, Wait, what are you talking about? You know, they had it in their kitchens and living rooms, and they were like, wait a minute, teachers didn't like that. They didn't like having parents having insight into the classroom.

SPEAKER_03 13:10

Yeah, you know, I've been doing this long enough and and back in my role at the at the South Carolina Policy Council to see it's you know, you you sort of get to the end of the session, and some bills just for lack of time or or focus or you know, other issues take all the air out of the room. Uh, they just don't get across the line. But in this case, the you know, the fact that it was not uh advanced out of committee, that's something that we can easily avoid at future sessions. Just give bills you know their their their time and in and a hearing to let both sides discuss, and then ultimately the committee can decide what it wants to do. So I expect that bill will be reintroduced early in this coming uh next session.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:54

And of course, uh bills that did not pass have to be reintroduced and restart their their journey next year.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

All right, Bryce Fielder, the website people can go to.

SPEAKER_03 14:03

Yeah, you can find us at schoolboardleader.com. You can sign up for our newsletter right there on the front page. Um, and you can find our upcoming events on the events tab. Next week, we are doing a webinar on school funding. So if you are free next Friday, we'd love to have you join us.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

Thank you so much. We'll talk to you next time.

SPEAKER_03 14:21

Thank you.