(Columbia) Feb. 15, 2005 - Jordan Black is a ninth grader at the Richland County School District One Dreher High School. While she struggles in math, for the most part she's a model student.

But, next year her father says, "She may actually go to private school." Jordan's father, Darrell, wants to cultivate his daughter's interest in law and the arts, "I think Jordan needs an environment conducive to the direction she's going."

If the "Put Parents in Charge" act becomes law, South Carolina would help Darrell send Jordan to private school. Under the plan families could receive about tax credit of about $3000, meaning they pay the tuition up front, and the state lets them deduct the amount from their state income tax bill.

But, the plan doesn't just apply to private schools. Parents who home school their children or send them to a parochial or charter school would also be allowed to take the deduction. Even if the student attended a different public school, parents would be able to deduct the cost of transportation.

To qualify the family must earn $95,000 or less, which would make eligible nearly every family in the Palmetto State. Families would also get a $5000 credit per child.

But, the tax credit would not cover all applicable institutions. Heathwood Hall's tuition for a rising tenth grader like Jordan is $12,090, among the highest in the state. Even after a tax credit Darrell would have to come up with about $8000.

Under the plan his daughter could get a certain percentage of the money from one of the newly-created SGOs.

Tom Swatzel, a tuition-tax credit advocate and president of South Carolinians for Responsible Government, says, "The way the SGOs, or Scholarship Granting Organizations, work is that individuals and businesses can get a tax credit for contributions to SGOs, and they can use their entire state tax liability dollar for dollar to donate to those."

Supporters of "Put Parents in Charge" say the SGOs could potentially make up most of the difference for Darrell. But, South Carolina Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum says not so fast, "We don't know how many industries would decide to fund a scholarship in lieu of paying these taxes. You can be assured if this bill passes, you will lose hundreds of millions of dollars out of our state."

She says that money would be lost if a business has a $10,000 tax bill but decides to make a $10,000 contribution to an SGO instead, circumventing the general fund, the pot of money used to, among other things, fund the Departments of Juvenile Justice and Mental Health and to maintain roads.

Tenenbaum says there are too many unknowns with the proposal. But, Governor Mark Sanford says "Put Parents in Charge" does a couple of things for certain. "It gives choices to parents that don't currently have those choices. ... What we're really talking about is empowering middle income and low income South Carolinians with dollars in the educational marketplace such that they could shop."

But, even those who would benefit from the plan like Darrell Black have reservations, "There's a lot of dollars being taken out of the public school system."

Many of those who teach in the public school system, like Dreher HS teacher Cliff Barrineau, say there's another problem, "There's no real meat to the accountability package like what we have to face in the public schools."

If you're a public school parent, you know there's a lot of testing and tracking of your child, but who is monitoring private schools? News 10 takes a look at all sides of that debate Wednesday on WIS News 10 at 6:00.

by Craig Melvin
posted 6:00pm by Chris Rees