School choice bill gets pushed back

ROBERT W. DALTON, Staff Writer

COLUMBIA -- Gov. Mark Sanford will have to wait until next year to see whether his controversial school choice plan can make it through the Legislature.

The House on Wednesday declined to take up the "Put Parents in Charge" legislation until next week. By pushing it back, the House guaranteed that the bill would not make the May 1 deadline to be taken up in the Senate this year.

"Meeting the May 1 deadline for this bill was unrealistic," said Rep. Shirley Hinson, R-Goose Creek. "This is a two-year bill."

Hinson, a key supporter of the proposal, said she doesn't mind waiting a few more days to give the bill a full debate.

"My goal from day one was to get a vehicle to the floor. People have been waiting for years to debate choice on the floor of the House," she said.

The current version of the plan, the fourth, makes it a pilot program.

It would allow families in two districts -- one wealthy, one poor -- selected by the state Department of Education to claim tax credits to cover costs of sending their children to private schools, another public school or for home schooling.

Families with less than $75,000 in taxable income and two exemptions would be eligible for the credits. The income cap goes up by $5,000 for each exemption. To have $75,000 in taxable income, a family would have to earn more than $90,000.

Individuals and businesses can donate up to $10,000 to a Scholarship Granting Organization and receive a tax credit of 100 percent. The SGOs would provide scholarships for students from low-income families.

That portion of the proposal would cost the state about $16 million a year when fully implemented in 2007-08.

But an amendment to provide tax credits for donations to public schools statewide would add $525 million to the price tag when fully implemented.

House members are expected to opt for version five -- either a straight pilot with the costly amendment deleted, or a new plan that limits the program to students in underperforming schools -- when they take up the bill next week.

Speaker Pro Tem Doug Smith, R-Spartanburg, the primary sponsor of the original bill, said he never expected the bill to make it through this year.

He was hopeful, however, that the House would approve it and send it on to the Senate.

"This is something that we're going to have to do and send to them," Smith said. "A number of senators said they were considering introducing it, but the fact is that no one has so far."

Sanford spokesman Will Folks said the governor would continue to push to get the plan through.

"While this may raise the hurdle a bit this session, we're hopeful that it's not one that can't be cleared," Folks said.

"If not it's certainly another year of lost opportunity for a lot of kids trapped in failing schools."

Robert W. Dalton can be reached at 562-7274 or bob.dalton@shj.com.