I can't teach a child if they're not there.
In South Carolina, a state reckoning with the quiet erosion of its public education workforce, officials have turned to the budget as both remedy and signal — requesting $162 million to lift teacher salaries by 2 percent and raising the floor for bus driver pay by 5 percent. The vacancies are stark: over a thousand teaching positions unfilled, seven hundred bus routes without drivers, and a year-over-year surge in departures that speaks less to individual choice than to systemic neglect. Those closest to the crisis acknowledge that money, while necessary, cannot alone repair what years of underfunding, difficult conditions, and unmet needs have worn away.
- Teaching vacancies in South Carolina surged more than 50 percent in a single year — not a gradual decline, but a sudden drop that left over 1,060 classrooms and 700 bus routes without the people needed to run them.
- Children in some districts cannot physically reach school, because there are not enough drivers to transport them — turning a workforce shortage into a direct barrier to learning.
- The state's Department of Education is asking lawmakers for $162 million to fund teacher raises and a bump in bus driver minimum wage, framing competitive pay as the first line of defense against further departures to neighboring states.
- Education leaders are candid that the raises — as little as $800 more per year for some teachers, and 42 cents more per hour for bus drivers — will not immediately reverse the crisis on their own.
- The deeper drivers of the exodus — classroom discipline, inadequate mental health support, oversized classes, and poor working conditions — remain largely unaddressed by the budget request, even as officials call for a more holistic approach.
South Carolina's public schools are losing the people who make them run, and the state is now asking its legislature to spend its way toward stability. The Department of Education has requested $162 million to raise teacher salaries by 2 percent and push bus driver pay up by 5 percent — a response to a workforce crisis that has left more than 1,060 teaching positions and 700 bus driver slots empty as the current school year began. Educator vacancies climbed more than 50 percent from the prior year, a figure that signals not a trend but a rupture.
The raises, if approved, would mean between $800 and $1,700 more annually for teachers depending on experience, and would lift the bus driver minimum from $8.44 to $8.86 an hour — though many districts already pay far more just to keep routes covered. Ryan Brown, the department's chief communications officer, described the request as a matter of competitive necessity: South Carolina must match neighboring states or continue to lose educators to them. He also noted that the state has failed for years to fully fund a standard 2 percent raise for early-career teachers — a gap that opened during the recession and was never closed.
But those championing the raises are also the first to admit their limits. Sherry East, president of the South Carolina Education Association, called the bus driver situation a crisis and welcomed the investment while being direct: a 2 percent raise will not immediately fix the shortage. The forces pushing educators out — classroom discipline problems, inadequate mental health resources, difficult working conditions, and growing class sizes — are not solved by a line item.
The department's broader budget request reaches further, including $75 million for rural school facilities, $100 million for instructional materials, and $5.4 million to expand Virtual SC, a program that allows students to take courses unavailable at their local schools. Federal COVID relief funds are also being directed toward teacher recruitment, including the Call Me MISTER program at Clemson, which works to bring more men of color into the profession. Brown suggested that visible state investment in teachers carries its own message — that teaching is a viable and valued career path. Whether that message, backed by modest raises and supplemental programs, can reverse the exodus is a question South Carolina's schools are still living inside.
South Carolina's education system is bleeding workers, and the state is finally reaching for its wallet to try to stop the bleeding. The Department of Education has asked lawmakers for money to raise teacher salaries by 2 percent across the board and to bump bus driver pay up by 5 percent—a request that arrives as the state grapples with a crisis of its own making: more than 1,060 teaching positions sitting empty and 700 bus driver slots unfilled as the school year began.
The numbers tell the story of a system in distress. Teaching vacancies jumped more than 50 percent from the year before, according to the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention, & Advancement's 2021 supply and demand report. That's not a trend line—that's a cliff. The department is asking for $162 million to fund the teacher raises, which would translate to somewhere between $800 and $1,700 more per year depending on how long someone has been in the classroom. For bus drivers, the state minimum would climb from $8.44 an hour to $8.86 an hour, though many districts already pay substantially more—some as high as $20 an hour—just to keep drivers on the road.
Ryan Brown, the Department of Education's chief communications officer, framed the request as a matter of competitive positioning. South Carolina needs to match what neighboring states pay if it wants to keep teachers from leaving, he said, and eventually work toward the national average. There's a particular wound here: the state hasn't fully funded the standard 2 percent annual raise for early-career teachers in years—a gap that opened during the recession and never closed. The department is now asking to fix that for teachers in their first five years, when the raise matters most for someone deciding whether to stay in the profession.
But even the people asking for the money know it won't be enough. Sherry East, president of the South Carolina Education Association, called the bus driver shortage "a crisis" and acknowledged that districts are scrambling to fill the gap themselves because children can't learn if they can't get to school. She welcomed the raises but was blunt about their limits. "I don't think a 2 percent raise or the things in the budget are going to immediately fix our shortage," she said. The real problem runs deeper: discipline issues in schools, inadequate mental health resources for students and staff, poor working conditions, insufficient training and mentoring, and class sizes that make the job harder every year.
The Department of Education's budget request includes other pieces meant to address the broader crisis—$75 million for rural school facilities, $100 million for instructional materials, and $5.4 million to expand Virtual SC, a state-funded program that lets students take courses their schools don't offer. That program has grown exponentially during the pandemic, and the department wants to add 20 positions to support it. The department has also tapped federal COVID relief money to grow teacher recruitment programs, including the Call Me MISTER initiative at Clemson University, which targets male students of color for the profession.
Brown acknowledged that pay alone won't solve the problem—the state needs a holistic approach to recruitment and retention. But he suggested that visible investment in teachers might matter psychologically. "If young people see that the state is making investments in teachers for the work that they do, hopefully that will make them realize that it's a viable path for a profession," he said. The department says it plans to keep pushing for salary increases year after year. Whether that commitment will be enough to reverse the exodus remains an open question. For now, South Carolina's schools are short hundreds of teachers and drivers, and the state is betting that money—finally—might help.
Citações Notáveis
In order for South Carolina to remain competitive, we want to raise salaries to put us in line with the Southeast but continually make advancements towards the national average.— Ryan Brown, Department of Education chief communications officer
I don't think a 2 percent raise or the things in the budget are going to immediately fix our shortage that we have right now.— Sherry East, president of the South Carolina Education Association
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why did this shortage happen so suddenly? The 50 percent jump in vacancies doesn't come from nowhere.
It's been building for years, but the pandemic accelerated it. Teachers and bus drivers were already underpaid compared to neighboring states, and when schools closed and reopened, people had time to reconsider whether they wanted to stay. Some left the profession entirely.
The 2 percent raise—is that actually competitive, or is it just what the state can afford?
It's what the state is asking for, but it's not competitive yet. The real issue is that South Carolina hasn't even funded the full 2 percent for early-career teachers since the recession. This request is trying to get back to baseline, not leap ahead.
Sherry East said the raises won't be a "magic bullet." What would actually fix this?
She pointed to discipline issues, mental health resources, working conditions, class sizes. Teachers are leaving because the job itself has become harder, not just because the pay is low. Money helps, but it doesn't address why someone feels unsupported in the classroom.
Why are districts paying bus drivers up to $20 an hour when the state minimum is $8.44?
Because they have no choice. If they don't pay more, they can't fill the seats. The state minimum is essentially meaningless—it's what districts pay when they have no other option.
Does the state think this will actually work?
They're hopeful but realistic. Brown said they need a holistic approach. They're betting that if young people see the state investing in teachers, it might look like a viable career. But they're also expanding recruitment programs and trying to address the underlying conditions that make people leave.