What’s ahead in education advocacy for S.C.

They say all politics is local. So, too, is education, says the incoming president of a major state teachers’ organization who plans to advocate with a strong focus on what teachers want at the local level.

Crews Credit: Provided

“We talk a lot with our state legislators, which is important because it affects everybody,” said Dena Crews, a Florence teacher and incoming president of the South Carolina Education Association. “But at the same time, I’ve been able to see how we can make change for the better when we work with our local school boards and superintendents.”

Still, it sounds like she’s ready to face the inevitable fights ahead at the state level — starting with the perennially controversial issue of private school vouchers.

“Public money should pay for public schools,” she said. “We should work on making our public schools better instead of giving those resources away to schools that don’t have the same accountability.”

Crews also weighed in on growing debates over diversity initiatives and control of local school library content.

“We should trust the professionals who’ve been hired to do the job,” she said simply. “We’ve gone to school, we’ve studied, and we’re going to choose materials that are appropriate for our students and help them understand what they’re learning.”

Crews is stepping into a role shaped by her longtime colleague, Sherry East, who’s set to retire after two terms as SCEA president — a tenure East calls “the toughest job I’ve ever loved.”

Steady leadership through ‘tough times’

East, a longtime science teacher in Rock Hill public schools, doesn’t hesitate when asked to grade state lawmakers on this year’s legislative session.

“An ‘A’ on the Educator Assistance Act and an ‘F’ on vouchers,” East told the Charleston City Paper this week. “So for me, they’re sitting at about a ‘C’ right now.”

It’s that kind of candor that’s defined East’s two terms at the helm of the state’s oldest teachers’ association — a seven-year tenure that’s set to end with her term-limited retirement this July.

“This has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” she said, her voice cracking slightly on the other end of the phone line. “But I have truly loved trying to make a difference for the teachers and students of this state.”

Crews, who has served as vice president since 2018, credits East with steady leadership through unprecedented challenges, from the early days of Covid through recent showdowns over teacher pay and vouchers.

“She’s grown as a leader and navigated through some tough times,” Crews said. “But she had a vision that’s moved our association and state forward. We’re going to miss her so much.”

Teacher pay, contracts and … bathroom breaks

Despite deep disagreements over issues like private school vouchers and diversity initiatives, East says she’s been able to work productively with Republican leaders in the Statehouse on meat-and-potatoes matters such as teacher pay, contracts and working conditions.

For instance, she calls conservative Senate Education Chairman Greg Hembree, R-Horry, “a good listener.”

“I appreciate that he’s always been willing to meet with us and talk about our issues,” East said. “And on some things, he’s been willing to help.”

Thanks in part to solid working relationships like that, minimum teacher pay in the state has jumped from $32,000 to $48,500 during East’s time in office. And with this year’s passage of the Educator Assistance Act, teachers will for the first time have many of the same rights most workers take for granted — like the right to see an estimate of their salary before signing a contract.

“That was a big win,” East said.

But the victory she kept coming back to in her conversation with the City Paper involved an even more basic right.

As Covid worsened an already troubling teacher shortage across the state, she said, school districts began scheduling literally every moment of elementary school teachers’ day with official school business — from classes to parent conferences to lunchroom proctoring.
The result? Teachers couldn’t go to the bathroom from the time the first bell rang in the morning until well after the last one sounded in the afternoon.

East sounds a little incredulous as she describes the long fight it took to ensure that teachers had at least 30 minutes of duty-free time every day to attend to their personal needs.
“It took four years to get that,” East said.

The specter of privatization and ‘the radical right’

Perhaps no issue has defined East’s tenure as much as the fight against private school vouchers, which she says divert much-needed resources from the public schools that 90% of South Carolina children attend.

Under her leadership, the SCEA has been a plaintiff in two lawsuits challenging state voucher plans, eventually winning both cases in the S.C. Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, legislators decided to try again in 2025, passing new voucher legislation that aims to provide up to $7,500 to 15,000 S.C. families to send their children to private schools.
Unlike previous efforts, this year’s bill includes several bureaucratic and financial workarounds specifically designed to sidestep the state constitution’s ban on state spending that directly benefits private schools — a process East has likened to “putting lipstick on a pig.”

“There’s just no common ground on the public-private issue,” she said of her discussions with Republican leaders. “I think they’re being unreasonable, and they think I am. We just can’t get anybody to change their mind on that one.”

East says that disconnect is part of what she sees as a larger problem — the growing influence of far-right factions in both chambers of the Statehouse.

“The radical right is definitely changing the climate,” she said. “Legislators we’ve worked well with over the years are quietly talking about just not running again.”

As for East’s future, she said it could include anything from more teaching to additional work on behalf of teachers. And when asked specifically if it might also include a run for office, she didn’t shut it down.

“I don’t enjoy politics, but if it would help teachers and children I wouldn’t rule it out,” she said. “I would say I’m open to all suggestions.”