Students pay dearly with 'Put Parents in Charge'

e-mail this story discuss this issue in our forums Guest column • Chuck Saylors: Students pay dearly with 'Put Parents in Charge' (02/17/05) • Michael Fields: Sanford has right ideas for small business (02/17/05) • George Everett: Clear Skies Act deserves support (02/16/05) • Catherine Mobley: Going 'upstream' may end flood of homelessness (02/16/05) • Howard Daniel and Michael Fanning: Other Governor's School is big piece of puzzle (02/15/05) More details Chuck Saylors represents the Taylors area on the Greenville County School Board of Trustees and he is the chairman of the board. He also serves as president of the South Carolina PTA, and he is principal partner and owner of Carolina Construction Resources.

Gov. Mark Sanford's tuition tax credit plan for private schools and parents who home school, marketed as Put Parents in Charge, is receiving statewide debate as the Legislature, school boards, parents and citizens consider its impact on the state budget, public schools and services provided by state agencies.

Proponents of this "end-around school voucher plan" are trying to direct the debate to a parent's right to choose what is best for their child, rather than the real issue of taxpayers, at the expense of public schools and state agencies, paying the tuition costs for some families to send their children to private school or to home school.

Our school board and administration respect a parent's right to make choices for their children, including whether to send their children to public or private schools, or to home school. Within our school system, we have a flexible school choice program with more than 8,000 of 64,000 students or 12 percent attending a school other than their assigned school. Students being home schooled or attending private schools may also take courses and participate in extracurricular activities when space is available and there is no additional cost.

The Legislature should focus on using its taxpayer-provided resources for South Carolina's 670,000 public school students, not for families who choose private schools and home schooling. Under the proposal, parents choosing private school or home schooling would receive a state income tax credit. Current discussions provide income tax credits ranging from $4,000 to $9,000. It is interesting that the minimum tuition tax credit being discussed is at least double the state's base student funding for public schools. For this school year, base funding is $1,852 per student, $385 less per student than what is considered full funding by the state.

For this column, a $4,000 tuition tax credit is used to illustrate the impact. However, the impact on the state budget could be much worse. Parents with taxable incomes of $75,000 or less would receive a dollar-for-dollar state income tax reduction up to $4,000 to subsidize their private school tuition or to reimburse expenses for home schooling.

The $75,000 taxable income cutoff is somewhat misleading. In reality, families with incomes much greater would be included since taxable income is based after reductions for house mortgages, etc. Based on 2001 state income tax returns, the Department of Revenues projects 96 percent of families in South Carolina would qualify for the tax credit.

I am confident our legislators will get past the political rhetoric of parental choice and consider the real impact of the governor's proposal. You only have to study the details of the plan and do the math to understand that decreasing revenue to the state budget is bad business. When the state has less money, our Legislature is forced to cut funding for services such as law enforcement, paving of roads and highways, mental health and public schools. For Greenville County Schools, state budget cuts result in larger classes (more students) and elimination of academic course offerings. This proposal also passes costs on to local school systems, requiring increases in local property taxes to offset state cuts and to meet state mandates.

If there is any doubt about the intentions of the tuition tax credit and its attack on public schools, consider another aspect of the governor's plan. The proposal allows the creation of nonprofit organizations to fund scholarships to attend private schools. Individuals and corporations donating to these organizations would receive a dollar-for-dollar tax credit. At the same time, corporations donating to public schools receive a tax deduction of just pennies on the dollar.

The impact on public schools is real! It is estimated that the state would lose $208 million over the next five years based on income taxes paid by families whose children already attend private schools or are home schooled. The financial impact would increase if more families choose non-public school options, which brings up the issue of the creation of private schools, much like many in the 1970s, for reasons other than quality education. How would the state ensure that these children receive a quality education since there is no accountability to the public for student achievement?

Public schools are accountable. School Report Cards clearly illustrate each school's achievement and its progress with various student groups. Again, I stress that we serve all students — high-achieving students, average students and special-needs students.

The Greenville County School Board respects a parent's right to choose. However, we firmly believe that we need to move beyond the political rhetoric about a parent's right to choose and focus on the real issue — subsidizing private schools and home schooling at the expense of state services and the 670,000 students attending South Carolina's public schools.