South Carolina lawmakers rekindle bill limiting how topics like race are taught
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A small group of lawmakers in South Carolina rekindled debate Tuesday on a bill that would limit how topics like race can be taught in public school K-12 classrooms.
Both the House and Senate passed bills on the topic in 2023. But the different versions sat dormant until a conference committee met to try to work out the differences.
The three House members and three senators adjourned after an hour after making it just four pages into a 16-page handout on the differences between the proposals. There is a deadline. The regular session ends Thursday, although since a version of the bill passed both chambers it could survive into special sessions in June.
The conference committee Tuesday didn’t even get to the biggest differences between the chambers.
The Senate removed a provision requiring teachers to post any changes to their plans on what they will teach and classroom materials three days before the lessons and removed another provision allowing parents to sue any district in the state they think is teaching prohibited concepts even while they follow the school district’s appeal process.