Candidates For State Education Superintendent

There will be a run-off election for the GOP candidate for State Education Superintendent. Be an informed voter!

The South Carolina Education Association

Election Guide

2014 Candidates for Superintendent of Education

Candidate       

Background and Position

Sally Atwater (R)

           

The widow of GOP strategist Lee Atwater, Sally Atwater has been a special needs teacher in Colleton County for the past two years. A fiscal conservative and supporter of Governor Nikki Haley, Atwater worked for the U.S. Department of Education during the Reagan administration and later was appointed to advisory boards at the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institutes of Health. In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed Atwater executive director of the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. She also worked on Capitol Hill for a year in 2010 as a staffer for the House Education and Workforce Committee. Atwater holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in special education from Winthrop University and taught special education in public schools for nine years at the beginning of her career.

Fundraising:

Raised $86,041; On Hand $58,503

Website:

www.atwaterforeducation.com

Platform:

·         Opposes Common Core State Standards

·         Supports revising state school funding formula to help poor and rural school districts

·         Supports review of safety policies in schools

Molly Spearman (R)

           

The Executive Director of the SC Association of School Administrators (SCASA) for the past nine years, Spearmanis a formerteacher and assistant principal.She served four terms in the SC House of Representatives, during which time shepresented herself as a champion for children’s issues. She also was deputy education superintendent under Democrat Inez Tennenbaum’s superintendency (1998-2007). She was a Democrat until 1995, when she switched parties. She graduated from Lander University and holds a Master’s of Education Supervision from George Washington University and an Education Specialist degree from the University of South Carolina.

Fundraising:

Raised $90,521; On Hand $67,465

Website:

www.mollyspearman.com

Platform:

·         Supports Gov. Haley’s education funding reform plan

·         Supports workplace preparedness and technology education programs for graduates

·         Has helped SCASA develop its own teacher evaluation plan as an alternative to the Zais plan; SCASA’s plan also incorporates student growth measures, as required by our state’s NCLB waiver

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