On May Day, 10,000 educators, students, and supporters marched from the state Education Department down Senate Street to the State House grounds, where they held a spirited rally — and made history. The grounds were a sea of red, a powerful show of unity and stregth, the crowd audible to lawmakers inside.

Sen. Mike Fanning opened the rally on the Network’s Healthy Democracy rolling stage,  and closed the rally at the State House with a call to action. A teacher himself, Fanning has championed educators in the Senate and is passionate about advocating for real reform rather than the lip service that’s been given for decades to education in South Carolina.

“For too long in South Carolina, teachers have been sitting back and letting non-teachers set the vision for learning, and that has to stop,” Fanning said.

“We have to speak up. We don’t want something done in 10 years — the time is now!

“You are here today — the largest gathering of teachers in the history of South Carolina — and you have done something my colleages never thought you’d do. We showed up by the thousands, we made noise, and we ain’t done yet.”

Teachers are asking for reduced class size and less mandated testing, and more mental health counseling. (Half of schools have no counselors, and half have them only on Tuesdays and Thursdays.)

Fanning said, “You’ve been bullied this week by the community, by your own state superintendent of education.” Molly Spearman issued a statement two days before the rally decrying the “walkout.”

“Year in and year out we rank 48th and 49th in teacher pay,” Fanning said. “We have a base per-student formula that we haven’t funded one time in 11 years. Eleven years doesn’t sound long to those folks, but that is an entire career of a student.

“This year the General Assembly had 1.1 billion extra dollars. Guess what we did to the base student formula? The House cut it by 18 dollars, the Senate cut it by three dollars. Whatever budget passes, you will get less money next year than you got this year per student.

“Eight people crafted the reform bill, with not a single teacher in the room. The bill passed the House 106 to 4. What’s the magic bullet, people ask: I say: Let teachers teach and students learn.

“You blew people’s minds today. Nobody exptected 10,000 teachers. If you’d shown up yesterday, it wouldn’t have been nearly as powerful as showing up with 9,999 others. I need you to make sure they hear your voice, and you’re not going away.

The rally ended with 10,000 voices chanting: I teach, I vote!

This could be a turning point in the long fight for public education in South Carolina. Whatever happens, the rally was a stunning example of worker solidarity that should inspire people across the state.

The SC Progressive Network offered logistical support at the rally. We look forward to collaborting with educators in the coming legislative session.

Sen. Mike Fanning chats with the Network’s Midlands coordinator Daniel Deweese