COLUMBIA, SC (WSPA)- Wednesday, South Carolina lawmakers finished the process of authorizing the spending of almost $2 billion in federal aid.
South Carolina senators spent several hours Tuesday discussing the CARES Act funding and how the money should be spent. When it comes to education, lawmakers are pushing for more instructional time and less testing.
“We’ve talked long and hard in this state about too much testing,” said Representative Rita Allison in response to the decisions made by the Senate Tuesday.
Tuesday afternoon, senators introduced an amendment do away with state and federally mandated standardized tests for the 2020 school year.
Senator Mike Fanning introduced the amendment. Fanning explained his motivation behind the proposal. “If we have the chance to do one impossible thing to take something extra off the plates of our teachers and students we ought to do it. And how on earth, when we know we need every minute of instruction to make up for last year and this year, how can we waste over a month on standardized testing.”
Senators voted in favor of the amendment during the passing of the CARES Act bill, which allocated close to $2 billion dollars in federal aid. $220 million will be spent on education.
The bill, including that amendment, was also passed by the House.
Representative Allison added, “We’ve tried to get away from testing that really doesn’t tell the teachers anything, but we can keep those tests that teachers can do on their own so they know where a particular student is.”
The bill will now head to the governor’s desk.
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