Republican re-elected as SC’s K-12 schools chief

COLUMBIA — Republican Ellen Weaver won a second term Tuesday, Nov. 3, as South Carolina’s state superintendent for K-12 public schools.

Weaver received 51% of the vote against Democrat Sylvia Wright; 56,000 votes separated the two, according to unofficial results from the state Election Commission.

Baba Amin Ojuok, running for the United Citizens Party, received about 1% of the vote.

“I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for believing in South Carolina’s education mission,” she told supporters at the GOP election night event at the State Fairgrounds. “I am here to tell you that South Carolina surge is happening,” she added, referring to improvements in reading and math scores.

“Y’all, we have a whole lot of work to do, but we know that hope propels hard work,” she continued. “That’s my commitment to you, commitment to the students and teachers of South Carolina, and that’s our shared commitment to the voters of this state.”

Weaver again defeated a teacher to continue overseeing policy at the state’s 72 public school districts. Wright, a teacher before moving into administration, most recently worked as a district coordinator for Dorchester 4.

For most districts, the job does not entail direct oversight over districts. The exceptions include rural Allendale, Marlboro and Jasper counties, where the state Department of Education is attempting to correct problems. The state also maintains some control over Williamsburg County schools — a takeover that, like Allendale, predates Weaver’s tenure.

Weaver previously led the conservative education-focused think tank Palmetto Promise Institute, the state’s leading advocate for school choice legislation. As state superintendent, she continued to advocate for expanding parents’ options.

Weaver has overseen implementation of the Education Scholarship Trust Fund, a taxpayer-funded program that provides money to parents for private K-12 tuition and other education-related expenses. Initially approved in 2023, five months after Weaver took office, the program was partially halted by a state Supreme Court ruling in September 2024. A second law approved eight months later reinstated parents’ ability to use the money for private tuition and expanded who qualified.

Improvements in student performance during her tenure have been attributed to a combination of teacher training programs, legislation passed to improve teacher working conditions, and a drop in teacher vacancies amid salary increases approved by the Legislature.

Her supporters voting on Election Day included former Superintendent Mick Zais, who went on to be deputy secretary of education during the first Trump administration after opting not to seek re-election as state superintendent.

Zais, who advocated for school choice in Columbia and Washington, said he was “very enthusiastic” about voting to give Weaver a second term.

She “consistently put students and parents first,” he told the SC Daily Gazette after voting in Columbia.

And she “understands that — because children vary enormously in their ability, their motivation, the rates at which they mature, their interests, their skill set — the traditional education model that puts every child in the same classroom expects them to learn the same material on the same schedule is a recipe for mediocrity at best,” he said.

Wright’s campaign centered around improving early childhood education. She wanted to build better pathways between pre-kindergarten and later grades, establish statewide training for district leaders, and put a halt on the K-12 scholarships Weaver wants to expand.

Weaver ran unopposed for the Republican nomination in June, a stark difference from the field of six Republicans on the ballot in 2022.

Wright defeated the Democratic nominee from four years ago, longtime teacher Lisa Ellis, for the party nomination.

It’s been 20 years since voters elected a Democrat as state superintendent. In 2006, Jim Rex won with fewer than 500 votes.

In 2018, voters soundly rejected the idea of letting the governor choose the education superintendent.

Reporter Katharine Wilson contributed to this report.