Every spring school district administrators and school board members work to come up with a “General Fund” budget–the school district budget to fund district operations for the next school year that begins on July 1. Many factors come into play in developing a final budget.
Your property tax bill(s) is not easily understood particularly when it comes to school district taxes. This article explains how these taxes work in general and the added complexities involved in the taxes for your school district.
IMPORTANT TO KNOW: The property taxes on your primary home do not help fund the operations of the public schools that your children or your neighbors’ children attend.
State funding for public schools in South Carolina is critical for school districts in order to provide competitive teacher salaries and high level classroom instruction and student supports that improve student achieve- ment. This infographic shows where the state money comes from and where it goes to support public education in the state.
School districts in South Carolina are losing a large and growing amount of local revenue for school operations from the property tax exemption for primary residence homes and corporate tax abatements such as FILOTs. In combination, the net operations loss for all school districts in South Carolina is nearing $1.5 billion per year and growing.
State Aid to Classrooms is unrestricted-use funding that the state government annually provides to school districts for school operations. In most cases it is the largest source of revenue for district “General Fund” budgets and is primarily used for teacher salaries. The State Legislature sets the State Aid amount for the next school year in its annual January to May/June session.
State-mandated minimum teacher salaries in South Carolina have increased greatly in the last few years particularly for first-year teachers. And the South Carolina average teacher salary continues to closely align with the southeast average. However, when inflation is taken into account, the state average salary and state minimums for higher levels of teacher experience are actually lower than they were ten and five years earlier. Nationally, the average teacher earned 73.4 cents for every dollar that other college-graduate professionals made in 2023.
The teacher work environment is very challenging with many teachers experiencing high levels of stress, burnout and dissatisfaction based on multiple factors. This harms student achievement and results in a significant number of teachers leaving the profession. Reasons for teaching include “to make a difference in children’s lives” and to “share their love of learning and teaching.”