McMaster’s budget boosts teacher salaries with $150M education investment

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCIV) — Gov. Henry McMaster is rolling out his recommended state budget for fiscal year 2026–2027, putting a heavy focus on education across South Carolina, from teacher pay to early learning, school meals, and campus safety.

One of the largest proposals in the plan is a boost in starting teacher salaries. The governor is asking lawmakers to spend $150 million from the state’s budget surplus to raise the minimum starting pay for teachers statewide.

“Right now, the starting pay, minimum pay, is $48,050. I’m urging the legislature to go on and raise that to $50,500 a year as the minimum starting teacher pay,” McMaster said. “And that represents a 68% increase since 2017.”

McMaster said the increase would keep South Carolina ahead of neighboring states when it comes to starting teacher salaries.

The budget also includes a major expansion of full-day, four-year-old kindergarten, a program already operating in parts of the state, including Charleston County.

“Four-year kindergarten, I believe that is the key to the future,” McMaster said.

The proposal includes $9.9 million to allow more middle-income families to qualify for the program by raising the eligibility limit to 300 percent of the federal poverty level.

“This may turn out to be the most important investment that we’ve made in early childhood education and one of the most important that we’re making in our state,” McMaster said. “Statistics show that a child educated, a child enrolled in a state-funded 4K program or any 4K program, a child that is taught early is better prepared to learn than a child that does not start that way.”

Another major element of the plan is free breakfast for every student statewide. The governor’s budget sets aside $8.7 million to cover an estimated 4.1 million meals per year.

“Eating breakfast, which I believe — and others as well believe — that breakfast is the most important meal of the day for a young person,” McMaster said. “Eating breakfast improves their cognitive performance, attention, memory, and behavior, thereby improving everything that happens in that classroom with their academic performance.”

School safety is also a priority in the governor’s proposal. His budget keeps $56.2 million in place to ensure a school resource officer is stationed in every public school across South Carolina.

McMaster’s recommendations now move to the General Assembly, where lawmakers will debate what ultimately makes it into the final state budget as the legislative session begins.

Read the full budget here.