South Carolina approves PragerU for use in public school classrooms, joining 7 other states 

South Carolina has joined the growing number of states making PragerU educational materials available in its public schools.

Ellen Weaver, state education superintendent, and PragerU CEO Marissa Streit announced the new partnership from the Palmetto State Capitol.

“We are so excited about the partnership with you and all the other civics resources that we are looking to bring to the table for our students and our teachers,” Weaver told Streit in the video. “We have an incredible country, an incredible state and we want our students to know that history, to be proud of that history and to know their place in that amazing story that we call America.”  

PragerU materials align with South Carolina’s learning standards on a number of topics, including economics, civics and government, geography, history, religion and personal finance.  

South Carolina is the eighth state to formally bring PragerU into its public school classrooms, following Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Montana, New Hampshire, Arizona and Louisiana.  

Streit also praised Weaver for two of her other initiatives: banning cellphones in classrooms and promoting the science of reading. 

“These phones are inhibiting [teachers’] ability to do their job and to make sure that our kids get the education that they need,” Weaver explained. “[Phones] are doing real damage to the mental health of our students. The addictions that these are causing, the anxiety and the depression that we know [are] a direct result of overuse of technology, this is a real danger.” 

The Palmetto State’s new rule, which was finalized on Sept. 5, requires students to keep their cellphones turned off and in their lockers or backpacks all day.  

Numerous other states are also restricting cellphone use at school.  

South Carolina also appropriated $39 million to train teachers in science-based phonics instruction.  

“When it comes to teaching the science of reading, it’s about building teacher knowledge and giving teachers the tools that they need in their toolbox in order to be effective teachers of reading,” Weaver explained. “Unfortunately, most of our teachers are not currently getting that instruction in their college prep courses. Our higher ed education colleges are way more focused on woke politics, sadly, than on giving our teachers those foundational skills that they need to have to be a good teacher.”