South Carolina schools chief: 'Ironclad' commitment to lowincome, special education students regardless of DOE status
Mar 23, 2025
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WBTW) -- South Carolina's most economically vulnerable students and their special education peers will continue to be prioritized no matter what happens on the federal level, state superintendent Ellen Weaver told lawmakers this week.
"Right now, we are in intensive conversations
with our local superintendents and the folks who are coming down from Washington in the new administration to make sure they are hearing from the ground up what the impact of these decisions is going to be," Weaver told a House legislative oversight committee.
Her comments came following a question by state Rep. Wendell Jones, D-Greenville, who asked what the agency was doing to prepare for the possible dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education.
"I can promise you that at the DOE here in South Carolina, we have an ironclad commitment to ensure that our low-income and special needs students don't miss a minute of what they are owed," she said.
South Carolina this year got $926 million worth of combined federal aid to support nearly 797,000 students.
A majority of that money -- roughly $529 million -- is split between Title I and Individual with Disabilities Act programming.
"The protections that are in federal law for special needs and low-income students, those are written into federal statute and the Department of Education could go away tomorrow and that would still be written in," Weaver said.
President Trump can't dissolve the federal Department of Education without Congressional approval and likely court challenges, meaning its funding mechanisms for state resources shouldn't be immediately affected.
Pete Stone, a Chester County educator and host of a popular video series through the state's Center for Educator Wellness and Learning, said a wholesale dismantling of the federal agency would be devastating for rural and high-poverty areas.
"Of course, yes, any system needs to be gone through and reformed and made more streamlined, but to completely abolish $240 million that's currently going to our most vulnerable in our state without an adequate plan to replace that does not seem like a very conscientious. moral decision," he said.
...read more read less
