As a result of the Great Recession of 2007-2009, most states experienced declines in employment, consumer spending, and economic productivity (Alm, Buschman, and Sjoquist 2011). In turn, these events led to historic declines in state tax revenues (Mikesell and Mullins 2010; Boyd and Dadayan 2009), resulting in major cuts in public spending. Local governments, including school districts, have been severely impacted as well (Alm, Buschman, and Sjoquist 2011; Dadayan 2012), forcing them to decrease services, shed employees, or raise taxes. Recovery from the recession has been slow. For policymakers who seek not only to restore but also to improve their states' fiscal health, there exist differing schools of thought as to how best to achieve this goal. This article focuses on South Carolina and the application of two competing views of how to achieve greater economic growth and productivity, one that is more commonly referred to fiscal conservatism, or, in extreme cases, fiscal austerity, and a second that is grounded in maintaining a robust public K-12 public education system.