By Jeff Dishner

As many of you may remember, I ran for Senate District 8 in 20012 and then Greenville County School Board of Trustees in 2014.  Public education, and more importantly, proper funding of public education, has been an important mission for me since all three of my children attended public school in Greenville County.  My involvement with PTAs and SICs in my children’s schools led me to understand the deep devotion our teachers have to the children in our community.  

I know we all are aware of the numerous pieces of shameful legislation being introduced in our State House: censoring our history, banning books, exposing our dedicated school teachers to lawsuits, limiting access to medical care for trans people, defunding our public school system with vouchers, and limiting women’s reproductive rights, just to name a few.

I traveled to Columbia on Wednesday, March 29 to hear public statements to the Senate Education Subcommittee on House Bill 3728, the bill sadly titled “Transparency and Integrity in Education Act.”  This session was a continuation of an earlier session where the time allotted for public comment expired.  This session lasted for an hour and a half and approximately 20 people spoke in opposition of the bill.  No one spoke in support of the bill.  The sign on the wall stated that the maximum capacity allowed in the room was 125 people, and I did not see an empty seat.  When one of the witnesses asked for those in opposition of the bill to stand, I saw no one remain seated.

There were only two Senators present on the dais: Shane Massey, Republican from Edgefield, and Ross Turner, Republican, from Greenville.

This piece of legislation would limit the ability of public school teachers to teach about race inequality, gender inequity, sexual orientation, gender roles, and would subject a teacher to increased scrutiny and legal liability, paving the way for frivolous lawsuits.  The language in the bill is vague, sometimes hiding the real meaning of the legislation coated in broad universal truths such as providing “quality education for all” and “mutual respect,” with very little definition of how to implement this language.

People from all over the state spoke in opposition of this bill, but a large majority of the witnesses were from Greenville.  From multiple members of the clergy, professional educators, to representatives of groups such as the League of Women Voters, the NAACP, attorneys, and a law professor from USC, people from all walks of life gave impassioned speeches in opposition to the bill.  Most people forecast that this bill, if law, would disenfranchise teachers, resulting a mass exodus of educators and stopping students from even considering teaching as a profession.  Those who spoke cut through the rhetoric in the bill and called out the racist, prejudiced, censorial language, comparing the ultra-rightist restrictions proposed to Jim Crow and Nazi Germany.

Following these bills through the labyrinthian complexity of our state legislature is a daunting task, but we must be aware and diligent in our opposition.  Our partners in this fight, the South Carolina ACLU, the NAACP, numerous other progressive organizations and local LGBTQ+ groups are keeping a watchful eye on these pieces of legislation, keeping voters informed.  Far-right conservative groups with innocuous-sounding names such as “Moms for Liberty”, the “Freedom Caucus” along with more sinister organizations such as “No Left Turn in Education” and “MassResistance” are leading this charge.   These national groups are highly organized and they are churning out divisive pieces of sample legislation peddled to every conservative state legislature in the nation, pushing through these reactionary, fascist policies.

Make no mistake, we are at war with the authors of these pieces of regressive, racist legislation.  Follow and challenge our elected officials, remembering how they voted come next November.