S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley said she remembers 2008 - when small businesses were hurting, the economy had taken a huge slump, and there was no construction in the state.
Now, seven years later, South Carolina is one of the fastest-growing economies in the country, she told attendees of the North Augusta Chamber of Commerce's Business Power Lunch on Tuesday.
She said unemployment has dropped at rapid rates, and the state was named the friendliest state, as well as the most patriotic state in the country.
A combination of those things has made South Carolina the No. 2 state in the country people are moving to, Haley said.
"We don't relax, we don't celebrate, because now we have to work twice as hard to make sure we can keep it up," she said. "Every other state is on our heels. They want what we've got, and they're going to fight for it."
One issue that Haley has focused heavily on is education reform. She said education has been at the bottom of the totem pole for a long time, especially in rural areas.
Haley told the audience that when she went to her hometown of Bamberg to speak, the school didn't have equipment on which she could show video.
"That's immoral," she said. "We funded education based on grade - seniors got more than third-graders. We changed the way we do education. Now, we will fund education based on poverty. ... This is the second year of education reform - we have doubled down on our reading budgets and technology. We have continued a focus on tablets and instruction. Then, we said we have to focus on those areas that don't get seen - the rural areas of South Carolina."
Haley said many rural areas aren't able to keep teachers. One way to keep them, pending a passing of the budget, is through teacher recruitment, she said.
Students graduating high school can have their tuition paid for if they commit to teaching in a rural area for six to eight years, she said. Recent college graduates can have their student loans paid if they commit to the same time frame in a rural area; and, if a teacher wants to move, the state will pay for his or her master's degree and give a pay bump to satisfy living in a rural area, she said. All of the reform, Haley said, has been done without raising taxes.
Haley said this session was "one of the hardest working, most frustrating" ones she had seen. In particular, she focused on lawmakers not passing a budget.
"There is no reason they should not finish June 30," she said. "This is going to be the second time in 25 or 30 years that they haven't passed a budget. It's another growing trend of a problem we've got in Columbia. The mentality is all off."