As we close out Pride month, we want to wish our LGBTQIA members happiness! Love is love and all of our children deserve it.

From the Board of SC for Ed regarding the recent Accelerate Ed recommendations. We hope those who share these concerns will use their voice.

The recent Presidential executive order to suspend issuance of new nonimmigrant visas including J-1 visas, will prevent incoming exchange teachers from being hired by school districts this school year. The loss of incoming Teacher Exchange employees for this upcoming school year would only increase class sizes among other issues, creating a further burden upon students and returning teachers in either traditional or virtual environments offered by the public schools. If you would like to help, you can ask your elected officials in Washington to ask for an exemption for exchange teachers recently hired with J-1 visas. Use the following link to find your representative's contact information https://sc.gov/government/congressional-delegation In your outreach, try to communicate specifics about the current need for J-1 exchange teachers at your school this year and the hardships not having them would create. We hope you’ll join us in making sure class sizes are as small as possible.

We now have clarification on what low, medium, and high spread mean in reference to the Accelerate Ed plans.

As part of the Covid bill approved by the SC Senate yesterday (headed to the third reading today), Senator Fanning added an amendment to waive testing for a year. It passed, but if your senator was one of the ten who voted in favor of tabling the amendment, you might want to ask them why. The culture of testing should not be more important than the physical and mental health of students. #timeforchange #dumspirospero