When

By noon on Tuesday, March 8, 2022

How

Call (preferred) or email members of the SC Senate and SC House. 

Talking Points 

Affordability–- Families with limited financial resources may not be able to take advantage of these programs. 

• These bills do not provide enough money to cover the average cost of private school tuition plus accompanying out-of-pocket costs, such as transportation.
• Parents who cannot provide transportation themselves or who lack sufficient funds to pay all the remaining costs of private or parochial school will not be able to benefit. 

Accountability—If students are using public money for their instruction, they should be required to take the same assessments as students who are attending public schools. National assessments are not an acceptable alternative. 

• Nationally marketed norm-referenced tests are not constructed to measure the South Carolina curriculum standards.
• The same forms of norm-referenced tests are used year after year, and test-preparation materials that are essentially alternate forms of the test are frequently available for purchase.
• Norm-referenced tests will not provide parents with adequate information for making decisions about their children’s educational progress. 

Accessibility—Unlike public schools, private schools can choose which students to accept or reject.

• Private and parochial schools can refuse to admit students who have handicapping conditions, students who need remedial instruction, or others, depending upon the criteria they set up.  

Weakening public schools—Bills that divert public money to fund private and parochial schools have the potential to weaken the public schools because public schools must by law accept all students, including those who require more resources and those who have significant handicapping conditions. 

Current Bills

S.935 Creation of Education Scholarship Accounts

• This Senate bill would allow about $7,100 per student and would be funded by removing state funds for each student from traditional and charter public schools. Parents could draw funds for any of a list of approved expenditures, including up to $750 for transportation costs.
• This bill would prohibit schools from denying admission on the basis of “race, color, national origin, or religion.”
• Some senators have pushed to require state assessments and/or to expand the non-discrimination language to include gender or sexual orientation, academic aptitude, or disability status, but these have not been added so far.

H.3976 Education Scholarship Accounts

• This House bill is less likely to move at the moment. It is similar to S.935.
• Both propose hiring a private contractor to administer the program through the Office of Administration in the Governor’s Office.
• These bills would pay initial costs and afterward allow up to 4% for administration cost.

H.4879 Parental Choice in Education Act
The House Ways and Means Committee has moved this bill  to the full House for debate. 

• This House bill would allow about $5,000 per student for private school or for a public school in a district other than the district the student is zoned to attend.
• It would fund a three-year pilot program with a one-time appropriation of $75 million from the state contingency reserve fund.The program would be administered through the South Carolina Department of Education and allows for initial startup costs and 2% for subsequent administration costs.
• At last reading, it did not contain money for transportation.
• This bill does not require students with ESAs to take the same assessments as public-school students.
• This bill was amended in committee to prohibit schools from denying admission on the basis of “race, gender, color, national origin, or religion,” but students could be denied for other reasons, such as academic aptitude, prior academic performance, or disability status.