An estimated 4,000 teachers and supporters will assemble on a school day today in Columbia to protest, march and speak for improved working conditions.
The teachers, organized by the teacher advocacy group SC for Ed, have been asking state lawmakers for higher wages, smaller classroom sizes, more mental health counselors in schools and full funding of the state’s promises to students.
Teachers are using personal leave days to go to Columbia for a single day, unlike at the weeks-long teacher strikes and walkouts that took place in other states like West Virginia and Oklahoma in 2018.
Seven school districts and a charter school have announced closures due to the mass exodus of teachers and a shortage of substitutes Wednesday. The affected schools serve a combined 123,000 students.
Today in South Carolina’s state capital: An estimated 4,000 teachers and supporters march on the Statehouse in an activist movement of unprecedented size. 7 school districts are closed. https://t.co/tXfFgdkf2U
— Paul Bowers (@Paul_Bowers) May 1, 2019