Local officials say a bill that would give
families tax credits to send their children to private schools seems to
be foundering.
On Thursday, Proponents of the bill, the Put Parents in Charge Act,
introduced amendments that would reduce the maximum tax credit awarded
under the bill from $4,000 to $3,200. They did it on the recommendation
of House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston.
Denver Merrill, spokesman for the group supporting the tax credit
bill, said the revised version "shows a willingness to compromise in
order to get some reform passed. We think this is the bill that could do
that. Opponents of reform are going to continue to fight changing the
status quo."
"It's backwards movement," said Mike Fanning, executive director of
the Olde English Consortium, said of the bill. The consortium represents
area public schools.
The bill has been criticized in an organized effort by public
educators who say the tax credits would drain millions of dollars from
public schools. The S.C. School Boards Association immediately shot off
a press release after introduction of the new bill Thursday, calling it
"smoke and mirrors at best."
Gov. Mark Sanford introduced the first Put Parents in Charge bill. On
Thursday, his spokesman Will Folks said the governor hopes legislators
"will be more inclined to support" the new bill.
Rep. Gary Simrill, R-Rock Hill, whose name was on the original bill,
joined Republican colleague Ralph Norman of Rock Hill in suggesting a
smaller-scale "pilot project" to test the idea. Norman recently took his
name off the bill, and Simrill said he is uncertain how his name got on
the bill.
"The best course of action is to look at it on a smaller scale," said
Simrill, who is on the House Ways and Means Committee. "No one really
knows what the full implication would be on the state general fund. A
pilot program would give proponents and opponents an opportunity to see
just what it would do."
Wayne Wingate, a Rock Hill businessman who heads up the local
campaign to defeat the bill, also previously mentioned a pilot project
as a compromise.
Simrill pointed to the fact that just hours earlier Thursday the Ways
and Means Committee had unanimously approved a state budget that
includes full funding of base per-pupil spending of $2,290 in public
schools, as recommended under the Education Finance Act of 1977. EFA
recommendations have not been fully funded for five years because of a
sluggish economy, meaning local taxpayers have had to dig deeper into
their own pockets.
"I think that is part of the state's duty," Simrill said of the full
EFA funding. Rep. Herb Kirsh, D-Clover, and Rep. E. DeWitt McCraw,
D-Gaffney, also sit on the committee and voted for the budget.
Kirsh said Thursday he does not intend to vote for the new bill and
his impression is that sentiment against Put Parents in Charge crosses
party lines.
"They know the bill's in trouble," he said.
Sen. Wes Hayes, R-Rock Hill, believes that if the bill gets to the
Senate, it won't be approved. "It's very unlikely," he said. "I don't
see a great deal of support for it."
Legislators have agreed the budget will be the first matter taken up
by the full House. It will be up for floor debate on March 15. If the
tax credit bill makes it out of committee, it would not be up for floor
debate before late March or early April.
Thomas "TEC" Dowling, superintendent of Fort Mill schools, said
Thursday that tax credit supporters "must be thinking their support in
the Legislature is evaporating."
Karen Bair • 329-4080
kbair@heraldonline.com
