SC superintendent wants to keep expanding state-funded teacher bonuses

COLUMBIA — State Superintendent Ellen Weaver will ask the Legislature for another $5 million to expand eligibility for performance-based bonuses after 400 teachers received a pay boost for the program’s inaugural year, she said last month.

The state Department of Education doled out just half of what legislators approved last year for the pilot program: At least one teacher at each of the 37 participating schools received some amount, totaling $2.5 million in bonuses, according to agency.

The state-paid bonuses averaged $6,300. The highest award was $33,500.

The other $2.5 million will roll over into this school year, said department spokesman Jason Raven.

That will give the agency $7.5 million total to award for year two of the pilot. More schools will be participating this school year, though it’s unclear how many. The agency has not yet released specifics.

It’s also unclear why half of last year’s allotment went unspent. Weaver did not address that at a recent news conference celebrating the awards.

The bonus program is meant to reward the state’s best teachers and encourage student progress, Weaver said.

“The goal of this is to thank our teachers, to support them for the great work that they do, and then to keep them in the classroom,” she said. “We want our very best teachers in the areas where we need them most.”

Different models

The program expands on a public-private model started at Meeting Street Schools in Charleston County in 2021. The Excellence in Teaching Awards are run by Beemok Education, a nonprofit funded by philanthropist Ben Navarro.

That model compares students’ performance on tests at the beginning and end of the school year to judge their progress.

Schools in the state pilot had the option of having their bonus program overseen by Beemok (but funded by the state). Eleven of the 37 participating schools went with Beemok.

Of the 400 teachers receiving a state-funded bonus, 94 were part of Beemok’s announcement earlier this month. Their bonuses averaged $9,135, according to the Department of Education.

Roughly half of the 37 schools based bonuses on students’ performance on end-of-year state-standardized math and reading tests taken by students in third through eighth grades. The average bonus for those teachers was $8,728, according to the agency.

Six schools created their own model to measure academic growth, which included using scores on end-of-course tests taken by high schoolers. Bonuses in those schools averaged $3,315.

In all, more than 800 teachers statewide received a combined $6 million in bonuses, according to numbers provided by Beemok Education and the Department of Education.

Funding request

Weaver is seeking an additional $5 million for bonuses to award for the 2026-27 school year. That would give her agency three years of data to help craft a potential statewide expansion, Weaver said.

She’s long been a proponent of rewarding teachers for proven performance. Her first budget request in 2023 included a $25 million ask for a bonus program, which the Legislature didn’t fund.

Weaver also plans to continue pushing for higher salaries for all teachers, she said.

Since the 2020 pandemic, the state-required minimum salary for a first-year teacher has risen from $35,000 to $48,500.

Repeating a request from last year, Weaver is again asking legislators to raise the floor to $50,000.

The bonuses are meant to supplement state minimums in the so-called salary schedule, which pays teachers based on their years in the classroom and level of college degree, Weaver said.

Rewarding teachers for students’ documented progress “is a really important way for us to incentivize our very strongest teachers into our classrooms where we need them the most,” Weaver said.

Patrick Kelly, a lobbyist for the Palmetto State Teachers Association, said he would be open to seeing some sort of boost for excellent teachers, but he worried about whether a statewide model could be fair to all teachers, including those whose classes didn’t include testing.

He suggested teacher evaluations as a more equitable way of distributing bonuses, though even those would need a standardized process first, he told the SC Daily Gazette previously.

Highest performer

At Seven Oaks Elementary Global Magnet in Columbia, 20 teachers — 86% of those eligible — earned awards. That’s the highest proportion of any school participating in the state-funded pilot, according to the Department of Education.

Those teachers earned a total of $141,500, which Weaver presented to the school’s principal in the form of a giant check last month.

Seven Oaks, part of Lexington-Richland School District Five, exemplifies the program’s goals, Weaver said. A school where more than 85% of its students live in poverty showed more growth than any other, she said.

That shows the dedication of students and staff alike, said Principal Angie Slatton.

“I often say that these children and staff are easy to work hard for,” she said. “They inspire us every single day and truly deserve to be celebrated.”

While Seven Oaks is a magnet school — a public form of school choice — there are no academic requirements for attending. Students outside the normal attendance zone are selected by lottery. The students and staff represent more than 25 nationalities, according to the school’s website.

Jennifer Clyburn, an award winner who teaches first grade, works to tailor her lessons to the specific students in her classes each year instead of sticking to a set lesson plan year after year, she said. She focuses on how her students’ mistakes can help them learn and encourages them to remember there are no bad questions, she said.

Clyburn didn’t say how big of a bonus she received.

“Every lesson, every activity and every experience is designed as a team to close that learning gap that we see, and we help each child move forward step by step, however big or small that is,” Clyburn said.

Originally published at: https://scdailygazette.com/2025/10/27/sc-superintendent-wants-to-keep-expanding-state-funded-teacher-bonuses/