SC senator avoids showdown over changes to education bill

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina senator threatened with a vote to toss out almost 200 of his amendments to a bill overhauling public education said Thursday he was removing about half of them.

Sen. Mike Fanning said he was making the gesture in hopes he continue to work to make the bill better.

“I look forward to working with each of you as we do that," the Democrat from Great Falls said.

The Senate has been debating the education bill for seven weeks after senators placed it in a special slot on the session's first day, which prevented almost all other legislation from being discussed.

Fanning has already been a part of dozens of amendments, many of them voted down. He said teachers don't want the bill passed unless it is changed.

Many Republicans and supporters of the bill have become increasingly frustrated with Fanning, On the third try, they won a motion to limit debate, and on Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey threatened to use a rule for the first time that allows senators to remove amendments if they are only meant to delay a vote.

The Senate still has a number of amendments and continued to debate them after Fanning's announcement Thursday.

Senators have been working on the bill for a year.

The House passed its own version in March 2019 and in 2020 has passed several parts of its bigger bill in smaller chunks this year — cutting the number of standardized tests, altering an elementary school reading program and making it easier to recruit people without education degrees into the classroom.

Speaker Jay Lucas pointed out their progress Thursday on Twitter.

“The House continues to move S.C. forward, while others just talk,” Lucas wrote.

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Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP