South Carolina’s Teacher Union Strength Profile

South Carolina has the nation’s eighth-weakest teacher unions. Relative to their counterparts in other states, they exhibit the most strength in Policy Wins and Losses (35th), followed by Involvement in Politics (38th), Labor and Bargaining Policies (40th), Perceived Influence (41st), and Resources and Membership (50th).

South Carolina ranks 50th in this area.

Indicator	Sub-indicator	Rank
Membership	Where does the state rank relative to the share of public-school teachers who are union members (in 2020–21)?	50th
	Where does the state rank relative to union membership among all employees (in 2024)?	49th (tie)
Vote share	Where does the state rank relative to the share of voters who are union members (in 2022)?	48th (tie)
	Where does the state rank relative to the share of voters who are both union members and employed in the educational services industry (in 2022)?	48th (tie)
Revenues	Where does the state rank in terms of its NEA and/or AFT affiliate’s total yearly revenue per teacher, adjusted using the NCES Comparable Wage Index (in 2023)?	51st
Teacher strikes	Where did the state rank in terms of the number of teacher strikes (between 2019 and 2024)?	9th (tie)
	Where does the state rank relative to the share of districts that engage in strikes (between 2019 and 2024)?	5th

South Carolina ranks 38th in this area.

Indicator	Sub-indicator	Rank
Candidate endorsements	Where does the state rank relative to how many gubernatorial and down-ballot candidates the state teacher unions endorse (in the 2024 general election)?	29th
	Where does the state rank relative to the share of teacher union-endorsed gubernatorial and down-ballot candidates who win (based on the 2024 general election)?	24th
Financial contributions to campaigns and political parties	Where does the state rank relative to the share of all contributions to state-level candidates that originate from teacher unions (between 2019 and 2024)?	39th
	Where does the state rank relative to the share of all contributions to state-level political parties that originate from teacher unions (between 2019 and 2024)?	25th
	Where does the state rank relative to how much teacher unions contribute for every dollar donated to state-level candidates by the state’s top 10 business interests (between 2021 and 2023)?	42nd
Political advertisements	Where does the state rank relative to how many state and local political ads teacher unions sponsor (in 2020 and 2022)?	Tied for last (no ads sponsored)
	Where does the state rank relative to the share of state and local political ads that teacher unions sponsor (in 2020 and 2022)?	Tied for last (no ads sponsored)
	Where does the state rank relative to how much money teacher unions spend on state and local political ads (in 2020 and 2022)?	Tied for last (no money spent)
	Where does the state rank relative to the share of state and local political ad spending by teacher unions (in 2020 and 2022)?	Tied for last (no money spent)

South Carolina ranks 40th in this area.

Indicator	Sub-indicator	Data/Rank
Automatic revenue policies	Does state policy allow automatic payroll deductions (in 2025)?	Not in state policy
Scope of collective bargaining	Is collective bargaining prohibited, permitted, or required by the state if a majority of teachers vote for it (in 2025)?	Prohibited
	Across 16 areas, where does the state rank relative to the strength of its collective bargaining law (in 2025)?	Tied for last (no collective bargaining)
Exemptions from collective bargaining	Are charter schools exempt from collective bargaining agreements (in SY 2018–19)?	Yes
Right to strike	Are teacher strikes legal (in 2025)?	Neither prohibited nor authorized

South Carolina ranks 35th in this area.

Indicator	Sub-indicator	Data/Rank
K–12 spending	Where does the state rank by share of total annual K–12 spending devoted to teacher salaries and benefits (SY 2021–22)?	41st
	Where does the state rank relative to annual spending per pupil, adjusted using the NCES Comparable Wage Index (SY 2021–22)?	31st
	Where does the state rank relative to the share of the annual general budget spent on K–12 education (FY 2023)?	18th
Class size	Does state policy restrict K–12 class sizes (in 2024)?	No
Teacher compensation	Where does the state rank by average salary of public-school teachers (SY 2023–24)?	36th
Merit pay	Does state policy require the use of teacher performance to determine compensation (in 2022)?	No
Teacher evaluations	Does the state allow teacher dismissal based on ineffectiveness (in 2025)?	Not permitted, or no policy
	Does the state require use of student growth measures in teacher evaluations (in 2025)?	Yes, but the impact on the teacher evaluation score is small or unspecified
Employment benefits	Where does the state rank in terms of its employer contribution rate to teacher retirement plans as a percentage of the payroll (in FY 2022)?	No teacher pension plan listed in source*
	Does the state provide tenure protections for K–12 teachers (in 2023)?	Yes
Charter school enablers	Does the state allow charter schools (in 2025)?	Yes
	Does the state limit the number of charters granted (in 2025)?	No
	Does the state limit the types of charter schools allowed (in 2020)?	No, but there are limitations within type
	Does the state allow multiple authorizers for charter schools (in 2025)?	Yes, with few restrictions
Charter school exemptions	Does the state automatically exempt charter schools from laws or regulations (in 2020)?	Yes, many exemptions
	Does the state require certification for charter-school teachers (in 2020)?	In some cases
Unionized charter schools	Where does the state rank relative to the share of charter schools that allow collective bargaining (in SY 2018–19)?	Tied for last (no collective bargaining in charters)
School choice and voucher policies	Does the state allow education savings accounts (ESAs) (in 2024)?	Yes, with significant restrictions
	Does the state allow tax-credit scholarships (in 2024)?	Yes, with significant restrictions
	Does the state allow vouchers (in 2024)?	No
	Where does the state rank relative to the share of K–12 students who do not use a private educational choice program (in SY 2021–22)?	23rd (tie)
	Where does the state rank relative to the share of K–12 students who attend traditional public schools (in SY 2021–22)?	40th

Note: *Where data were not available, they were excluded from calculations.

South Carolina ranks 41st in this area.

Indicator		Rank
By rank, how do the state’s education policy leaders perceive teacher unions’ strength relative to...	Resources and membership (Area A)*	35th
	Involvement in politics (Area B)*	40th (tie)
	Policy wins and losses (Area D)*	38th
	Overall power**	41st

Note: *Average response across five survey items related to constructs from the area indicated in parentheses.
**Average response across three survey items related to overall perceptions of union strength.

How did we calculate our rankings?

We constructed overall state rankings—as well as overall scores, area scores, and area rankings—through a multistep aggregation process that applied equal weighting across multiple levels. Consistent with the 2012 report, the equal-weighting approach reflects a methodological judgment that each dimension of union strength merits equivalent consideration in the overall ranking. The aggregation proceeded as follows:

Step 1: Standardization. We rescaled all sub-indicators to a consistent 0–4 scale, with higher values corresponding to greater union strength, so that we could combine sub-indicators with different original metrics (e.g., percentages, dollar amounts, survey responses).

Step 2: Indicator-level aggregation. For each indicator, we calculated the simple mean of all constituent sub-indicators within each state. This produced a single 0–4 score for each indicator in each state.

Step 3: Area-level aggregation. For each state, we calculated the simple mean of all indicators within each area. Each area accounts for 20 percent of the overall strength score, and that 20 percent is distributed evenly across the indicators in the area. In other words, within any area, each indicator’s weight equals 20 percent divided by the number of indicators in that area. The resulting area scores for each state allowed us to generate area-specific rankings.

Step 4: Overall strength scores. We calculated overall union strength by taking the simple mean of the five area scores for each state.

Step 5: Overall rankings. We rank state unions from strongest (highest overall strength score) to weakest (lowest overall strength score) based on their overall scores.