COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Republican and Democratic nominees for governor are staking out opposite education platforms, with Attorney General Alan Wilson championing school choice and state Rep. Jermaine Johnson pressing for universal pre-kindergarten plus a sweeping audit of public schools.
Wilson’s campaign says he wants families to keep public funding options open across public, private, charter, faith-based and home settings when children need different supports, while also backing full funding for traditional public schools. He has described how his parents used a private Christian campus for him even as his brothers finished in public classrooms.
Johnson called for universal pre-K during the June 3 primary debate and has said he rejects voucher programs that move tax dollars into private tuition. He also wants auditors to line up strong and struggling schools in rural and urban districts, looking at overhead costs and teacher pay.
Lawmakers already created an education scholarship trust that lets some students carry state dollars to another public campus or a private school. The state minimum starting teacher salary is set at $50,500 for 2026-27, a climb of 68 percent since 2017.
SC Ready results have climbed for two consecutive years. On the latest cycle, more than three in five elementary and middle schoolers met English language arts targets and nearly half cleared the math bar. Even with those gains, South Carolina remains near the bottom of many national education rankings, which both camps say keeps the issue central to the race. The state education department, led by Superintendent Ellen Weaver, lists literacy, math and teacher retention among its standing priorities.
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