State needs school choice

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Following the lead of President Bush, Gov. Mark Sanford has proposed his own school choice initiative to help students from low-income families escape failing schools. Sanford's "Put Parents in Charge" bill deserves the support of the General Assembly as a pilot program that would offer greater educational opportunity to students who are poorly served by public schools.

The bill also could foster healthy competition between schools. Public schools would have a greater incentive to shape up or face the prospect of an exodus of students to private schools.

Under the plan, qualifying parents could receive up to $3,380 in tax credits to send their children to private school or to home-school them. Sanford argues persuasively that the tax credits will not hurt public-school funding because the top tax credit amounts to only about half the cost spent per child in public schools. Currently, the state and local school districts spend about $8,168 per student — for both operations and capital projects.

As with any dramatic change in education, Sanford's plan comes with some significant drawbacks. A major problem is that Sanford's plan would provide tax subsidies not only to parents of modest means but also to upper-middle-class parents. A single parent with one child could earn up to $75,000 of taxable income. A two-parent family with one child could make up to $80,000 in taxable income. The cap would rise by a $5,000 increment for every additional child in the home.

That means subsidies would be available to many parents who already have the financial wherewithal to send their children to private school. The income requirements should be lowered to provide choice only to families who truly lack a choice of schools.

Opponents of school choice advance a host of other objections, many of which are valid and should be dealt with by Sanford and state lawmakers. In two years, parents who already send children to private school or home-school their children would begin to qualify for the tax credits. That potentially could place a huge burden on the state budget at a time of scarce funding.

Sanford and lawmakers also have to honestly confront such issues as bus transportation and the fact that private schools will have the ability to reject difficult students — those who could benefit most from school choice. Aggressive state oversight would be required to ensure that South Carolina's school choice program doesn't succumb to the fraud that has plagued Florida's program.

Sanford's underlying plan, however, remains sound. Dynamic school-choice experimentation is needed in South Carolina to provide greater hope for students who may be falling through the cracks of the public school system.