Education in South Carolina

Last updated

Education in South Carolina covers the history and current status of education at all levels, public and private, and related policies.

Contents

History

Early education in South Carolina was centered in the home, reflecting the English roots of colonial society. Literacy was low. Wealthy families typically hired tutors or sent their sons to private schools in Charleston. Education for crafts was provided through apprenticeships. Professional physicians and lawyers were trained through working as assistants in the offices of established practitioners. Seminaries were set up for ministers, such as the 1826 Baptist school Furman Academy and Theological Institution (now Furman University). Numerous military academies provided a high-school level education, with The Citadel in Columbia offering a college degree. [1] In the colonial era the missionary society of the Church of England sponsored schools attached to their local parishes. They also taught slaves and established the Charleston Negro School in 1742 [2] [3]

Education for freedmen: In 1861-65 As federal troops occupied the state slavery was abolished and the US Army agency the Freedmen's Bureau set up programs to educate the freed slaves. Teachers were recruited by Northern philanthropic and missionary societies. The two most famous schools are the Penn School on St. Helena Island and the Avery Institute in Charleston. Enthusiasm among freedmen for education was high. Southern whites tolerated schools for Blacks but strongly opposed Yankee teachers. During the Reconstruction era, the Freedmen's Bureau, northern philanthropic and missionary associations, and African American activists established private schools for black youth. Blacks welcomed their newly acquired freedom and citizenship as an avenue to obtain formal schooling and literacy. By 1900, literacy rates rose to 50% from an estimated 5%-10% before 1865. [4]

South Carolina maintained a racially segregated elementary, secondary, and post-secondary system of education after Reconstruction. Black public schools within this system were underfunded and did not meet the needs and aspirations of African American communities. [5] However many private schools for Blacks were funded by Northern philanthropy well into the 20th century. Support came from the American Missionary Association; [6] the Peabody Education Fund; the Jeanes Fund (also known as the Negro Rural School Fund); the Slater Fund; the Rosenwald Fund; the Southern Education Foundation; and the General Education Board, which was massively by the Rockefeller family. [7] [8]

The University of South Carolina, founded in 1801 as South Carolina College flourished before the Civil War. It closed during the war and slowly overcame postwar struggles. It was rechartered in 1906 as a university and transformed into a comprehensive institution in the 20th century. In the early decades of the 20th century, South Carolina made strides toward becoming a comprehensive university. In 1917 it became the first state-supported college or university in South Carolina to earn regional accreditation. The Great Depression temporarily stalled progress, but the World War II brought U.S. Navy training programs to campus. Enrollment more than doubled in the post-1945 era as male veterans took advantage of the G.I. Bill. [9]

Until the late 19th century there were almost no public schools and education was left to families. Nonetheless, while historically the state’s support of schooling has been hesitant, sporadic, and limited, the last two decades of the twentieth century witnessed growing attention to schools. By the end of the twentieth century, reform of South Carolina public schools had entered the forefront of political debate

Primary and secondary schools

As of 2010, South Carolina is one of three states that have not agreed to use competitive international math and language standards. [10]

In 2014, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled the state had failed to provide a "minimally adequate" education to children in all parts of the state as required by the state's constitution. [11]

South Carolina has 1,144 K–12 schools in 85 school districts with an enrollment of 712,244 as of fall 2009. [12] [13] As of the 2008–2009 school year, South Carolina spent $9,450 per student which places it 31st in the country for per student spending. [14]

In 2015, the national average SAT score was 1490 and the South Carolina average was 1442, 48 points lower than the national average. [15]

South Carolina is the only state which owns and operates a statewide school bus system. As of December 2016, the state maintains a 5,582-bus fleet with the average vehicle in service being fifteen years old (the national average is six) having logged 236,000 miles. [16] Half of the state's school buses are more than 15 years old and some are reportedly up to 30 years old. In 2017 in the budget proposal, Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman requested the state lease to purchase 1,000 buses to replace the most decrepit vehicles. An additional 175 buses could be purchased immediately through the State Treasurer's master lease program. [17] On January 5, 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded South Carolina more than $1.1 million to replace 57 school buses with new cleaner models through its Diesel Emissions Reduction Act program. [18]

Institutions of higher education

South Carolina has diverse institutions from large state-funded research universities to small colleges that cultivate a liberal arts, religious or military tradition.

Furman University bell tower near Greenville Furman-Belltower2.jpg
Furman University bell tower near Greenville

Universities and colleges ranked by endowment, 2010

State
rank		National
rank		InstitutionLocationPublic / private?Endowment fundsPercentage change YOY
1142 Furman University Greenville Private$650,000,0007.8%
2151 University of South Carolina Columbia &
regional campuses		Public$625,186,0006.0%
3153 Clemson University Clemson Public$623,200,0009.5%
4236 Medical University of South Carolina Charleston Public$272,319,00013.7%
5270 The Citadel Charleston Public$244,000,0008.1%
6324 Wofford College Spartanburg Private$166,619,00010.2%
7447 Presbyterian College Clinton Private$97,590,00011.0%
8530 Converse College Spartanburg Private$78,240,0046.4%
9782 Winthrop University Rock Hill Public$43,600,00013.6%
10658 Coker College Hartsville Private$37,660,0004.9%

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Rod Andrew Jr, Long gray lines: The southern military school tradition, 1839-1915 (Univ of North Carolina Press, 2004).
  2. ↑ Shawn Comminey, "The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts and Black Education in South Carolina, 1702-1764." Journal of Negro History 84.4 (1999): 360-369. online
  3. ↑ See "Education" Encyclopedia South Carolina (2023)
  4. ↑ Frank A. DeCosta, “The Education of Negroes in South Carolina.” Journal of Negro Education 16#3 (1947), pp. 405–16
  5. ↑ See "Sad State of Education in 18th & 19th Century South Carolina" (Dataw Historic Foundation, 2023)
  6. ↑ Joe M. Richardson, Christian Reconstruction: The American Missionary Association and Southern Blacks, 1861–1890 (1986).
  7. ↑ Stephanie Deutsch, You Need a Schoolhouse: Booker T. Washington, Julius Rosenwald, and the Building of Schools for the Segregated South (Northwestern University Press, 2015).
  8. ↑ James Christopher Carbaugh, "The philanthropic confluence of the General Education Board and the Jeanes, Slater, and Rosenwald Funds: African-American education in South Carolina, 1900-1930" (PhD dissertation, Clemson University, 1997;  ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 9833440.)
  9. ↑ See "Timeline" (University of South Carolina, 2023)
  10. ↑ Hunt, Albert R. (August 23, 2009). "A $5 billion bet on better education". The New York Times . Archived from the original on May 10, 2013. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  11. ↑ Click, Carolyne; Hinshaw, Dawn (November 12, 2014). "SC Supreme Court finds for poor districts in 20-year-old school equity suit". The State. Archived from the original on March 31, 2016. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
  12. ↑ South Carolina – Fast Facts Archived May 11, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved May 10, 2012
  13. ↑ NEA Rankings and Estimates Page 11 Archived May 5, 2012, at the Wayback Machine , Retrieved May 10, 2012
  14. ↑ NEA Rankings and Estimates Page 54 Archived May 5, 2012, at the Wayback Machine , Retrieved May 10, 2012
  15. ↑ "Average SAT Scores By State (US)". LEAP blog. Archived from the original on October 15, 2015. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
  16. ↑ "SC should privatize school bus fleet". Lowcountry Source. December 17, 2016. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved January 24, 2017.
  17. ↑ "Update South Carolina's decrepit school bus fleet". The Post and Courier . Archived from the original on September 11, 2018. Retrieved January 24, 2017.
  18. ↑ "EPA Awards South Carolina $1.1 Million For Cleaner School Buses". South Carolina Department of Education. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved January 24, 2017.
  19. ↑ "About Lander University". Archived from the original on July 2, 2012. Retrieved May 19, 2013.
  20. ↑ "Our Third Annual College Rankings". Washingtonmonthly.com. Archived from the original on December 4, 2010. Retrieved July 31, 2010.
  21. ↑ "Fast Facts – Bob Jones University". Archived from the original on December 11, 2004.
  22. ↑ "Bob Jones University Enrollment Profile" . Retrieved June 4, 2021.

Further reading

Race

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Carolina</span> U.S. state

South Carolina is a state in the coastal Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered to the north by North Carolina, to the southeast by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the southwest by Georgia across the Savannah River. Along with North Carolina, it makes up the Carolinas region of the East Coast. South Carolina is the 40th-largest and 23rd-most populous U.S. state with a recorded population of 5,124,712 according to the 2020 census. In 2019, its GDP was $213.45 billion. South Carolina is composed of 46 counties. The capital is Columbia with a population of 137,300 in 2020; while its largest city is Charleston with a 2020 population of 150,277. The Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson, SC Combined Statistical Area is the most populous in the state, with a 2020 population of 1,487,610.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clemson University</span> Public university in Clemson, South Carolina, U.S.

Clemson University is a public land-grant research university in Clemson, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Clemson is the second-largest university by enrollment in South Carolina. For the fall 2019 semester, the university enrolled a total of 20,195 undergraduate students and 5,627 graduate students, and the student/faculty ratio was 18:1. Clemson's 1,400-acre (570 ha) campus is in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The campus now borders Lake Hartwell, which was formed by the dam completed in 1962. The university manages the nearby 17,500-acre (7,100 ha) Clemson Experimental Forest that is used for research, education, and recreation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fisk University</span> Historically black university in Nashville, Tennessee, US

Fisk University is a private historically black liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its 40-acre (16 ha) campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving African Americans. Most of these institutions were founded during the Reconstruction era after the Civil War and are concentrated in the Southern United States. During the period of racial segregation in the United States, the majority of American institutions of higher education served predominantly white students, and disqualified or limited black American enrollment. Later on some universities, either after expanding their inclusion of black people and African Americans into their institutions or gaining the status of minority-serving institution, became Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freedmen's Bureau</span> US agency assisting freedmen in the South

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, usually referred to as simply the Freedmen's Bureau, was an agency of early Reconstruction, assisting freedmen in the South. It was established on March 3, 1865, and operated briefly as a U.S. government agency, from 1865 to 1872, after the American Civil War, to direct "provisions, clothing, and fuel...for the immediate and temporary shelter and supply of destitute and suffering refugees and freedmen and their wives and children".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Carolina Central University</span> Public historically black university in Durham, North Carolina, U.S.

North Carolina Central University is a public historically black university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by James E. Shepard in affiliation with the Chautauqua movement in 1909, it was supported by private funds from both Northern and Southern philanthropists. It was made part of the state system in 1923, when it first received state funding and was renamed as Durham State Normal School. It added graduate classes in arts and sciences and professional schools in law and library science in the late 1930s and 1940s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bethune–Cookman University</span> Private historically black university in Daytona Beach, Florida, U.S.

Bethune–Cookman University is a private historically black university in Daytona Beach, Florida. Bethune–Cookman University is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. The primary administration building, White Hall, and the Mary McLeod Bethune Home are two historic locations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of South Carolina</span> Public university in Columbia, South Carolina, U.S.

The University of South Carolina is a public research university in Columbia, South Carolina. It is the flagship of the University of South Carolina System and the largest university in the state by enrollment. Its main campus is on over 359 acres (145 ha) in downtown Columbia, close to the South Carolina State House. The university is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities with Highest Research Activity". It houses the largest collection of Robert Burns and Scottish literature materials outside Scotland and the world's largest Ernest Hemingway collection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bennett College</span> Historically black womens college in Greensboro, North Carolina, U.S.

Bennett College is a private historically black liberal arts college for women in Greensboro, North Carolina. It was founded in 1873 as a normal school to educate freedmen and train both men and women as teachers. Originally coed, in 1926 it became a four-year women's college. It is one of two historically black colleges that enroll only women, the other being Spelman College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coastal Carolina University</span> Public university in Conway, South Carolina, U.S.

Coastal Carolina University is a public university in Conway, South Carolina. Founded in 1954 as Coastal Carolina Junior College, and later joining the University of South Carolina System as USC Coastal Carolina, it became an independent university in 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benedict College</span> Historically black, liberal arts college located in Columbia, South Carolina

Benedict College is a private historically black college in Columbia, South Carolina. Founded in 1870 by northern Baptists, it was originally a teachers' college. It has since expanded to offer majors in many disciplines across the liberal arts. The campus includes buildings in the Benedict College Historic District, a historic area listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wingate University</span> Private university in Wingate, North Carolina, U.S.

Wingate University is a private liberal arts university with campuses in Wingate, Charlotte, and Hendersonville, North Carolina. It identifies as a university with "Judeo-Christian heritage" that encompasses faith from across all religions and philosophies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Missionary Association</span> New York-based abolitionist movement

The American Missionary Association (AMA) was a Protestant-based abolitionist group founded on September 3, 1846 in Albany, New York. The main purpose of the organization was abolition of slavery, education of African Americans, promotion of racial equality, and spreading Christian values. Its members and leaders were of both races; The Association was chiefly sponsored by the Congregationalist churches in New England. The main goals were to abolish slavery, provide education to African Americans, and promote racial equality for free Blacks. The AMA played a significant role in several key historical events and movements, including the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Civil Rights Movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albany State University</span> Public university in Albany, Georgia, U.S.

Albany State University is a public historically black university in Albany, Georgia. In 2017, Darton State College and Albany State University consolidated to become one university under the University System of Georgia (USG). Albany State University has two campuses in Albany and a satellite campus in Cordele.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the University of South Carolina</span>

This history of the University of South Carolina began in the 18th century when intersectional differences arose between the Lowcountry and the Upstate. It was conceived that a state supported college located in the center of the state at Columbia, South Carolina, would foster friendships between those of both regions thus allowing the state to present a united front to the nation when threatened with issues jeopardizing the South Carolina way of life. The University of South Carolina's history can be described in four distinct phases: a firebrand college (1801–1862), constant reorganization (1865–1891), college to university (1891–1944) and the state's university (1944–present).

The civil rights movement (1865–1896) aimed to eliminate racial discrimination against African Americans, improve their educational and employment opportunities, and establish their electoral power, just after the abolition of slavery in the United States. The period from 1865 to 1895 saw a tremendous change in the fortunes of the black community following the elimination of slavery in the South.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Winthrop Holley</span> American educator

Joseph Winthrop Holley was a 19th-century American educator and author. He is best known as the founder of Albany State University, which he founded in 1903 as the Albany Bible and Manual Training Institute. He served as the school's president from its inception until his retirement in 1943.

Silas Herbert Hunt was a U.S. veteran of World War II who became the first African American student to enroll in a white Southern university since the Reconstruction era. He enrolled in the University of Arkansas School of Law on Feb. 2, 1948, breaking the color barrier in higher education and starting integration of colleges and universities in the South.

History of education in the Southern United States covers the institutions, ideas and leaders of schools and education in the Southern states from colonial times to about the year 2000. It covers all the states and the main gender, racial and ethnic groups.

The History of African-American education deals with the public and private schools at all levels used by African Americans in the United States and for the related policies and debates. Black schools, also referred to as "Negro schools" and "colored schools", were racially segregated schools in the United States that originated in the Reconstruction era after the American Civil War. They were created in Southern states under biracial Republican governments as free public schools for the formerly enslaved. All their students were blacks. After 1877, conservative whites took control across the South. They continued the black schools, but at a much lower funding rate than white schools.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.