S Carolina teachers stay home to advocate for pay, safety

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Some South Carolina teachers took a personal day Wednesday to fight for safer classrooms amid the pandemic as well as an annual small raise that was frozen after the economy crashed because of the virus.

Unlike May 2019, when SC for Ed brought 10,000 people to the Statehouse for a rally in support of educators that garnered national attention, teachers on Wednesday stayed home and called and emailed legislators.

“We didn't want to put them at any more risk,” said Lisa Ellis, who founded the group on social media less than two years ago.

Unhappy teachers are again moving to the front of South Carolina politics. After that huge rally 16 months ago, the governor and many lawmakers supported a $3,000 across-the-board raise for teachers in December.

But then COVID-19 arrived, the money for the raises disappeared and now teachers have gone from unappreciated to in fear of their own lives and their families' lives as Republican Gov. Henry McMaster and others push for in-person teaching five days a week.

Local COVID-19 case counts and positive testing levels are higher than the rates discussed for safe schools at the start of the summer.

But the governor said parents need schools to watch their kids to get back to work, comments echoed by parents who also said online learning is not as effective as in-person teaching.

Ellis said teachers want to get back into the classroom too, but only when it is safe. SC for Ed surveyed teacher s as the school year started and found that the only protective equipment nearly all of them received were masks.

More than two-thirds of them disapprove or strongly disapprove with how South Carolina is handling reopening schools and 27% are considering leaving their jobs.

According to data kept by The Associated Press,...