Voucher proponents have used a lot of shaky arguments in their push over the past week to revive Gov. Mark Sanford's so-called "Put Parents in Charge Act." It would offer income and property tax credits of up to $4,600 for parents to pay for private schools or pay for home schooling.
Supporters stress that it is not a "voucher" plan because the government never collects the tax money for disbursement.
But make no mistake about it, it would cost the state money. It would take money away from the general funds of state and local governments. The legislature has been advised it would cost the state $32 million in the first year of a phase-in period, ballooning to $234.4 million five years later. On top of that, the proposal would reduce local property tax revenue by $5.1 million next year to $37.8 million five years later. That is a significant amount of public dollars to be taken for private concerns.
Proponents claim that Clemson University says the plan would increase per-pupil funding in South Carolina. Clemson said no such thing. A professor at Clemson, hired by a special-interest group, reached that conclusion in a report that erroneously states that people who don't have children in public schools are paying taxes to support schools they are not using.
That failed thinking defines the danger of the voucher bill. It fails to acknowledge that public schools serve all of society and it is in everyone's best interest that they be supported, not treated as the enemy.
Voucher supporters deride the schools for being a "monopoly" run by "educrats" and "unions" that the U.S. Secretary of Education compared to terrorists.
The schools are not a monopoly. They are a civic responsibility and a community investment. They are a key to the future of this community, state, nation and world. Is a fire department a monopoly? Is the 911 dispatch center a monopoly? Should we take money from them to fund unaccountable private fire brigades in the name of free-market competition? Absolutely not. The same is true for the public schools.
Voucher supporters, including the governor, have been merciless in belittling the efforts and improvements in the public schools. It is simply not true for them to claim this state has nothing to show for a 130 percent increase in school funding over the past 30 years. More academic and extracurricular offerings, services to the handicapped, buildings, kindergartens and pre-kindergartens, nurses and health programs, programs for the gifted, after-school programs, year-round programs, strict standards and tests for accountability, buses, meals, technology, teacher salaries --the list is endless in describing the improvements made to public schools over the past 30 years.
In a number of categories, the state's schools are improving at a better clip than the rest of the nation. That includes Scholastic Assessment Test averages and teacher quality.
The bottom line is that the schools have a long way to go. They must meet new, extremely ambitious academic standards, while also overcoming mistakes of the past and coping with a society that wants quick results without working for them.
Public schools need complete public support to do what they must do for a free and successful society.