Introducing Simple Civics: EdTalks: A Greenville County Education Podcast Series

Welcome to the first episode of a brand new Greenville County education podcast series! Ever wonder how our local schools are funded, who makes the big decisions, or how education truly impacts every single person in our community - even those without kids in the system? In this special announcement, we're launching Simple Civics: EdTalks, a new series of Simple Civics dedicated to pulling back the curtain on the largest school district in South Carolina and the entire educational journey that shapes our future.

Katy Smith of Greater Good Greenville is joined by Catherine Schumacher, President and CEO of Public Education Partners Greenville County, to introduce this essential new series. We dive deep into the staggering scale of Greenville County Schools - the 43rd largest district in the nation with 78,000 students, 12,000 employees, and a billion-dollar community investment. This series will go beyond the classroom to explore the full birth to employment education continuum, from early childhood development with partners like Greenville First Steps to post-secondary education and workforce readiness. We'll demystify complicated topics like Greenville County Schools funding, explaining how the system's unique governance as an independent, government entity with taxing authority actually works. Simple Civics: EdTalks aims to make the complex world of public education in Greenville, SC accessible for parents, business leaders, and any community member who believes in the power of education to foster economic mobility and a thriving community. Join us as we explore what’s working, what the challenges are - including the statewide child care crisis - and how we can all come together to support the students who are our future workforce.

Introduction

Katy Smith: All across Greenville County, students, teachers, parents, and family members, and everyone connected to schools are getting ready for school to start. Even if you don't have a child in school, education from birth to post-graduation touches all of our lives. That's why today we are pleased to announce a spinoff of Simple Civics Greenville County, focused on education. It's Simple Civics EdTalks.

Katy Smith: I'm Katy Smith with Greater Good Greenville, and on this episode of Simple Civics, I'll talk with Catherine Schumacher, President and CEO of Public Education Partners Greenville County, who is our partner in hosting this new series. We'll discuss why you'll want to listen in and some of the episodes you can expect to hear. Simple Civics EdTalks will post on all of your favorite podcast apps every Thursday, so be sure you're following us so you don't miss an episode. You can also find the EdTalks episodes on our simplecivicsgreenvillecounty.org website.

Announcing Simple Civics EdTalks: A New Podcast Focused on Education

Katy Smith: Catherine, you have been a guest on the podcast. You have interviewed folks on the podcast, particularly our candidates for Greenville County School Board. But we are getting ready to launch something in which you will be a host. Thanks so much for being here for this.

Catherine Schumacher: I'm so excited. This is really an incredible opportunity, and I think we're very excited to kick off Simple Civics EdTalks.

Katy Smith: Well, first, let's just cover why did we think we needed an education-focused version of Simple Civics? Give us a couple stats to highlight why this is important.

The Scale of Greenville County Schools: Why a Deeper Dive is Needed

Catherine Schumacher: Absolutely. Here in Greenville County, we have a unified school district, Greenville County Schools. It is the largest school district by far in the state of South Carolina. It is the 43rd largest in the country. There are 78,000 students enrolled in Greenville County Schools. That is 88% of all of the school-age children in our county attend Greenville County Schools.

Catherine Schumacher: There are 12,000 employees. There are 6,000 teachers. It's one of the largest employers in Greenville County. And it's a billion-dollar investment between operations and capital and everything from our community. It is, I think, one of the great pillars of a civic society.

Catherine Schumacher: Simple Civics has done such an incredible job of pulling back the curtain on things that people are curious about in our civic life. Having a deep dive into this experience, this education space is incredibly important. We're excited to do that over ongoing episodes.

Katy Smith: I'm really thrilled to continue to learn from what you're going to uncover in this. I think it's also exciting that, of course, public education for K-12 students is enormously important. To think that the vast majority of students are part of our public school system is noteworthy. But of course, you're going to go beyond that. You're going to go before that and after that. So talk about that.

Beyond K-12: Exploring the Birth-to-Employment Education Continuum

Catherine Schumacher: One of the ideas behind this, and Derek Lewis from Greenville First Steps has been our thought partner in thinking through this, is let's look at that whole continuum, the work that Greenville First Steps does, getting children ready to come into school, and then also looking afterwards at post-secondary. We have Greenville Technical College here. We have such great universities. We're really looking at how are we educating young people from birth to employment.

Catherine Schumacher: That's a really important way for our community to be thinking about how we are supporting individuals and institutions and sectors to benefit economic mobility, economic development, all of the things that are growing Greenville. How can we learn more and then support all of the institutions that are behind the scenes?

Katy Smith: When you think about young children and their development, we're talking about their parents as well. We have a child care crisis in our state and our country. And this affects parents and the places that they work. And then when we think about post-K-12 and college, right now I have a college student who is under the age of 22, but these can be adults going back to college, employers who need new skill sets that aren't yet present in the workforce.

Catherine Schumacher: That's right. It's an economic area. The chamber is making huge investments in this space. And how do we get people who might not have finished a degree or certification? How do we get them back into the system? We're really excited to have just a lot of conversations, again, in that simple civics format: short, digestible, so that we can demystify some of it.

Catherine Schumacher: Also, talk about some of the great stuff that is happening here. I think people often don't know. And then we have these kind of intense conversations about what should we fund and how should we invest? If you understand what that investment means and what it looks like and what the trickle-down effects are on our communities, I think it's a lot easier for us to collectively come together and do the right thing and do what we need for the future of our communities.

Katy Smith: All right. Speaking of us coming together, the main focus of Simple Civics is government and our civic life together. Especially people who move here are a little surprised to learn how Greenville County Schools functions as a government, that it is a governmental entity and not a part of our county or of a town. So touch on that as an intro to many podcast episodes to come.

Understanding School Governance and Funding in Greenville County

Catherine Schumacher: Many podcasts to come. Greenville County Schools is a unified district. It is governed by an elected 12-member board of trustees who serve single-member districts that model on our county council districts, but not quite. They have taxing authority to put millage and learning about how schools are funded. In Carolina, we don't use your home to fund schools. That's just one of the topics. It's really complicated.

Catherine Schumacher: And I think when we have these intense conversations, thinking about how Greenville County Schools functions, understanding that is really, really important. And I think your point is well taken. Incredible growth in our schools. We know our community is growing. But we're essentially adding the equivalent of a school's worth of kiddos to our schools every year. I think they've projected 450 new students moving into the area this year. It's been as high as 700 at times over the last couple of years.

Catherine Schumacher: The trickle down impact of that and how do we support those students? How do we support the families and help them understand what their role is? Family engagement is such an important part of student success and school success and district success. This is all part of that. At Public Education Partners Greenville County, we're really excited to lean into that component of our mission through this podcast.

Katy Smith: Wonderful. All right, who do we think will be listening? Of course, we have a very dedicated audience of Simple Civics listeners already, so thanks to all of you. But you're going to want to tell some friends, some family members that this is coming out because they might be particularly interested. Who do we think those people are?

Who Should Tune In? A Podcast for Parents, Business Leaders, and the Community

Catherine Schumacher: There are folks who are involved with our schools who send their kids to the schools, but maybe haven't paid a lot of attention. And we're going to have some incredible teachers that are going to be part of this. We really want parents and family members of folks that are in the schools to pay attention and to listen in. But also business leaders helping to explain why these systems are so important and why our school district works the way it does sometimes, I think will be incredibly helpful.

Catherine Schumacher: And again, those are the employers. The kiddos who are in school now are going to be the employees of the future. I really am hopeful that there's a really broad interest because we're going to have topics all over the place. We're going to do deep dives into some of the more systems level issues like funding, things like that, to help people understand. And we promise to make those understandable, comprehensible and short because it is. It's complicated.

Catherine Schumacher: But also, I think we're going to talk about some things that are happening in our classrooms that people might be curious about. I know that the teachers that we're going to be working with to produce some of these episodes, they're really eager to say, "Look, there is great stuff happening that you might not even know about." And demystifying that, pulling the curtain back, is a really exciting opportunity for the community.

Katy Smith: And I really appreciate you noting that we want to make it easy because, of course, we came up with Simple Civics and this idea that more people need to know about local government, state government, but in a bite-sized manner that you could fold laundry while you're listening. You could drive to work and listen and you'll continue to do that.

Catherine Schumacher: That's the plan. That is the plan. And I think Derek Lewis from Greenville First Steps is going to be curating the early childhood components in some of those episodes. He'll be hosting those. And then I'm going to be looking primarily at this K-12 pipeline. But we're going to have teachers talking to other teachers, talking to folks from the district. We're going to be talking to some folks from higher ed. Again, it's a really diverse, full spectrum experience. We're excited for folks to come with us on the journey and just to learn more.

Katy Smith: Well, let's give folks a preview of what they can expect the rest of this year.

A Preview of Upcoming Topics: From Corporate Support to School Funding

Catherine Schumacher: Absolutely. We're going to start off. School is starting soon. We are going to kick off with talking with some corporate folks who have done a real wraparound support for some of our schools here in the community. What can our business leaders do to really lean in to supporting our schools? We're going to introduce everybody to some of the folks that are going to be part of this podcast.

Catherine Schumacher: We're going to be doing some explaining work as we look towards getting into some funding questions and things. Some of it will be a little meaty and some of it is going to be fun, too. But we're really excited to talk about the opportunity that exists in our schools every day.

Katy Smith: Excellent. Well, I'm really grateful to you for the partnership. Grateful for what Public Education Partners Greenville County does every day. And I cannot wait to get back to school on civic life in our school district and beyond.

Catherine Schumacher: That's right. I see what you did there. Public Education Partners Greenville County, the partnership is right in our name. And I think what's so exciting about this for us is the opportunity to collaborate with other organizations, like Greater Good Greenville, like Greenville First Steps that are really leaning into collaboration and partnership and how can we all come together to make this community the best community it can be.

Share Your Ideas: How to Get Involved with the Podcast

Katy Smith: Hopefully, if you're listening, you have heard Catherine mention some things that you've been really curious about, but I suspect you might have a little list of what you're wondering. If you'd like to submit topics you want to hear covered, go to the SimpleCivicsGreenvilleCounty.org website or just on the episode page. There's a contact form that you could submit your ideas, your questions, thoughts that you'd like to hear addressed. We always welcome your input and we look forward to all that's ahead.

Catherine Schumacher: Absolutely. I think that's a great idea. We want to hear from you. It's a wonderful opportunity to, again, just learn and be curious. Curiosity is so important in this time. And I think this is a great chance to do that.

Katy Smith: Well, thanks, Catherine. I'm excited for all that's ahead.

Catherine Schumacher: Me too. Thanks, Katy.

Catherine Puckett: Simple Civics: Greenville County is a project of Greater Good Greenville. Greater Good Greenville was catalyzed by the merger of the Nonprofit Alliance and the Greenville Partnership for Philanthropy. You can learn more on our website at greatergoodgreenville.org.