With South Carolina ranked 44th in education, S.C. senators voted legislation about school choice out of the S.C. Senate Education Committee yesterday. The bill is now headed to the S.C. Senate floor for a full vote.
The bill allows parents to spend public money on private schools.
The bill is named the “Put Parents in Charge Act”.
The legislation also made it through both the House and Senate last year, but the Senate and the House could not reach a compromise, so the bill died.
The bill faces some pushback from national teacher association related groups.
Horry County Senator, Greg Hembree told MyrtleBeachSC News that the Senate education panel would vote on the legislation which creates “Education Savings accounts.”
Hembree is the Chairman of the S.C. Senate Education Committee.
Under the proposal, children with special needs and families who qualify for Medicaid could receive up to $6,000 a year per child for educational expenses — including tuition and fees at private schools, internet access, electronics, textbooks, and transportation.
“It really is sort of a private school option for children in poverty,” said Senate Education Committee Chairman Greg Hembree (R-Horry).
Hembree reassured voters that the bill does not directly take money from public schools. The bill caps enrollment in the program at 5,000 South Carolina students in the first year.
“The most under this bill is 15,000 that can do it over time, when it’s fully expanded,” said Hembree. “That’s only 2% of our public school kids.“
Many Horry County residents, however, would prefer the enrollment not be capped at all.
School choice could impact the State of S.C. up to $90 million annually, depending on how many students participate. This is not net new spending, however, as those funds are already being spent by the state. Those dollars are currently allocated to public schools.
TEACHERS ASSOCIATION CRIES FOWL
“State budgets are finite, so if you’re going to fund one thing, then you can’t fund something else, so you can’t fully say there’s no impact,” said Patrick Kelly with the Palmetto State Teachers Association.
S.C. Senate Minority Leader, Brad Hutto, also opposes the legislation. Hutto argues lawmakers should focus on issues impacting all South Carolina children.
“It’s taken up so much of our time over the years. We need to focus on the number of children in the classroom, teacher pay increases, recruiting people to the teacher profession,” said Hutto.
The bill is expected to make the Senate floor for debate on Tuesday, January 17th.