Talking points
As of this writing, no bills for the next session have been introduced, so tell the committee members in your own words that you oppose sending public money to private or religious schools via any method. Add a few supporting statements giving your most important reason(s) for opposing the idea of diverting public money to private schools.
The fact that you are concerned enough to comment as a private citizen and supporter of public education is much more important than the length of your statement or the elegance of your reasoning. Below is a list of possibilities.
Voters support public schools
About 90% of South Carolina’s parents prefer to send their children to public schools. When private-school-funding options have been on the ballot in other states, voters have rejected the idea of spending public money to subsidize private or religious schools.
Vouchers and scholarship programs in other states have sent most of their funds to families whose children were already attending private schools.
Although these "choice" programs were originally promoted as options to help students from poverty, experience in other states has shown that the majority of parents who have benefited from Educational Scholarship Accounts and similar programs have not been families from poverty, but rather families who were already sending their students to private schools.
Private schools are not accessible to most students in rural and low-income communities.
Educational Scholarship programs and vouchers are not accessible to most families in rural and low-income communities because few private schools serve rural communities and because the funds that have been offered for private school expenses are not sufficient to cover tuition plus other requisite expenses, such as transportation and meals.
Disbursing public funds requires public accountability.
Lawmakers are accountable for responsible use of public money, and any private or religious schools that accept such funds should be held to the same educational standards that are required of public schools. These educational standards include financial transparency, and public reporting of academic achievement using the same standardized tests that are required of public school students.
Private schools can discriminate against minorities.
Private schools can set their own admissions policies and standards, which could be discriminatory. Public funds should not be available to pay for schools that discriminate against students with disabilities or other minority groups, including racial or ethnic minorities and LGBTQ+ students.
Offering “universal choice” risks serious budgetary consequences.
A variety of dark-money groups that promote privatization of K-12 education for profit seek to weaken and undermine public education. When other states have offered private school options to all parents, the impact on state budget funding has been substantial.
