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South Carolina’s government-run schools chief issued a memorandum this week responding to what she termed “a whirlwind of K-12 education-related activity in Washington” following last month’s change in administrations in our nation’s capital.
Ellen Weaver, who was elected to this post in 2022, sent the memo in part to address “irresponsible speculation” related to several executive orders issued by the administration of president Donald Trump.
“We recognize that policy shifts at the national level naturally generate questions from parents and educators across the state,” Weaver wrote in the memo (.pdf), which was sent to address Trump’s recent orders rescinding former president Joe Biden‘s attempted Title IX rewrite as well as his divisive “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” (DEI) mandates.
Trump has fully restored Title IX – a landmark women’s rights law – to its original intent (i.e. protecting women from discrimination). Biden sought to radically reinvent this statute to include biological males who “identified” as women – which led to unfair discrimination against female competitors.
Courts blocked those efforts, but Trump has now made fair competition in women’s sports the law of the land.
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Per Weaver, Trump’s federal order “reinforces existing state law… (which) sets forth requirements for South Carolina education professionals when it comes to the biological sex and gender identity of minor students.”
Another Trump executive order took aim at curriculum embracing gender-based ideology, which according to Weaver “mirrors and reinforces prohibitions already in place” as part of a state budget proviso.
“While the (order) adds some additional definitional language, it does not introduce a fundamentally new requirement for federal funds beyond what districts should already be implementing in respect to state funds,” Weaver wrote.
Finally, Weaver addressed Trump’s order striking down DEI.
“Federal law prohibits covered entities, including local school districts, from using race in decisions pertaining to admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life,” she wrote. “Put simply, educational institutions may neither separate or segregate students based on race, nor distribute benefits or burdens based on race.”
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As FITSNews has previously reported, educrats in South Carolina have wildly embraced liberal woke orthodoxy in recent years – including organized campaigns to foist the trans movement and DEI on Palmetto State school children. They did so with the full-throated support of the previous superintendent – an ostensible “Republican” who thankfully did not seek reelection in 2022 – and despite limp-wristed “opposition” from a purportedly GOP supermajority.
State-run media and legacy press outlets like The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier and The (Columbia, S.C.) State – and countless local television stations – have also advanced the woke agenda, stoking division with their selective capitalization of different races and references to genders as being “assigned at birth.”
Has any of this far left nonsense improved academic achievement in the Palmetto State? Or improved the quality of our homegrown workforce?
Hell no…
“Our state’s unwavering priority is to ensure that schools remain laser-focused on advancing student achievement,” Weaver wrote in her memo.
Let’s hope that actually becomes the case… but irrespective of the ideological bent of South Carolina’s chronically failing government-run system, it is time to dramatically expand parental options in the Palmetto State for all children. That is the only way to guarantee accountability via the marketplace – and to ensure parents have the ability to escape attempted state-sponsored indoctrination.
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THE MEMO…
(S.C. Department of Education)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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