The largely Republican-supported proposal, introduced in the House last week, would give qualifying parents up to $4,600 in scholarships or tax credits to offset private school tuition, home-schooling costs or "tuition" for attending a public school in another district.
But critics charge that the current plan, modeled on the voucher system in Florida, is flawed and question whether low-income families will be able to use the program to receive a better education.
Sanford points to Florida as evidence that school choice improves the education system, but a closer look at Florida's program reveals multiple state investigations into fraud, one criminal prosecution under way and a proliferation of non-accredited private school startups.
A December report from the Florida Department of Financial Services concluded the program does "not have systems or processes in place to support accountability and legislative intent."
Four years after the first vouchers were introduced, Florida lawmakers, Republican and Democrat, introduced bills this session meant to fix the system. Critics of the bill filed in South Carolina say it would lead to similar problems.
"We don't see anything in this bill that would prevent the sorts of problems they're dealing with in Florida," said state Department of Education spokesman Jim Foster.
PROPOSED BILL
Under the proposed bill, both private and public schools would receive taxpayer dollars. Parents who qualify could take the tax credit against their property or income taxes.
If the parents didn't make enough money to qualify for the credits, private schools could receive the dollars through the formation of scholarship granting organizations, nonprofit groups that would be set up to receive tax credits in return for paying for low-income children's scholarships. Public schools could receive schools are accountable by nature.
"Private schools can only survive if they do for the children what they say they will do," said Rep. John Graham Altman III, one of six local Republican co-sponsors. "They have the highest form of accountability. Parents can pull their child out of school."
But parents can't make informed decisions without accurate, public information, Foster said.
SCHOLARSHIPS
Ninety-six percent of the students in schools belonging to the South Carolina Independent Schools Association go on to college, said executive secretary Larry Watt. That compares with 63 percent of public high school graduates. But private schools set their own admission policies and handpick their students. The bill would not change that. The independent schools association, which represents about 100 accredited schools of the state's 372 total private schools, prefers it that way.
Watt thinks most of the association's members would participate in a scholarship program the bill would establish, "as long as no strings are attached."
"If we accept a student, we do so on our own grounds, not the students' grounds," he said. For example, many members likely would not accept a student with discipline problems, he said.
The 30 schools in the Catholic Diocese give preference to Catholic families. The screening process for admittance includes factors such as standardized test scores and school references, said diocese spokeswoman Maria Aselage.
Many established private schools are near capacity; 53,414 students attend S.C.'s 372 private schools. That's a fraction of the nearly 660,000 students in 1,121 public schools. Critics say the bill would not help the neediest students.
"I don't see a kid who's in high school who reads on a fifth-grade level being a welcome addition to most private schools," said Phyllis Gildea, president of the Charleston County Parent Teacher Association. "People who most need the alternatives are not those who can navigate through this. I talk to parents who say, 'I can't help my 10th-grader with his math.' "
No Child Left Behind allows students to transfer from high-poverty schools labeled "needs improvement" at no cost, with transportation provided. This school year, 1,708 students statewide took advantage of the offer to leave 90 schools. The Put Parents in Charge Act would leave transportation to the parents, and many low-income students ride the bus.
Supporters point to the scholarship portion of the bill. Anyone could start a nonprofit scholarship granting organization regulated by the state Department of Revenue. Lawmakers envision church groups and parents forming them all over the state to give scholarships to poor children who want to attend private schools.
Under the proposal, parents who qualify for free or reduced-priced meals could be the ones to receive scholarships, although the SGOs would have to provide those and the agencies don't exist yet. Scholarships would provide up to $3,200 for kindergarteners, $4,000 for students in first through eighth grades and $4,600 for high schoolers.
People or businesses who donate to SGOs could receive tax credits against property taxes for schools. Parents who don't qualify for scholarships could take tax credits against income or property taxes up to 80 percent of those amounts.
The salary caps for qualifying would depend on the number of people in the home, including dependent adults. A single parent with one child could earn up to $75,000 and still qualify. A two-parent home with a child or a single parent with two children could make up to $80,000. The cap would continue to rise by a $5,000 increment for every person in the home.
Parents who already send children to private schools could also benefit from the tax credits after an initial, two-year moratorium.
The salary threshold and the limits for scholarships and tax credits would be adjusted yearly.
PROS AND CONS
"This is a slap in the face," said Sarah Cash, president of the PTA for Mount Pleasant schools. "If you opt to send your child to a private school, that's fine. But if you do, pay for it."
The median family income in South Carolina is $44,227, with 55 percent of families earning combined salaries of less than $75,000, according to 2000 U.S. Census Bureau statistics.
"It's a family friendly bill," said its sponsor, House Speaker Pro Tem Doug Smith, R-Spartanburg. He said he did not limit the proposal to children on free and reduced-priced meals, as other states have done, because that would discriminate against other income groups.
Jon Butzon, executive director of the Charleston Education Network, called the bill "wishful thinking" and says its unintended consequences would be white flight from public schools. "This fails the Titanic lifeboat test," he said. "It's almost like they said, 'Well, (education) is going to sink anyway, so let's save who we can.' And like the Titanic, this saves the first-class passengers and lets the third-class passengers drown."
"I see this as an opportunity for corruption," said Lauren Raycroft, parent of two daughters in Mount Pleasant public schools.
In fact, loopholes in Florida's system allowed for just that.
Florida has two direct tuition voucher systems, rather than tax credits, one for students with disabilities and one for those in failing schools. But Florida's corporate tax-credit scholarship program for poor students resembles South Carolina's proposal.
More than 24,000 Florida children receive either vouchers or corporate scholarships.
Last year, news reports of abuses prompted state agencies to launch investigations into Florida's three-prong system.
Florida's financial services report noted that loopholes allowed, as one example, SGOs to transfer money to and write checks for each other, making possible abuses harder to catch.
On Jan. 29, authorities announced the arrest of James Isenhour, the chairman of an SGO and chief financial officer of a private school. He was charged with grand theft, accused of collecting nearly $270,000 in donations between last March and August and not properly dispersing any of it. Other investigations continue, said financial services spokesman Justin Glover. He declined to elaborate.
Florida lawmakers aggressively launched their school choice program, leading to a surge of new private schools and SGOs to pay for student tuitions, which backfired without the accountability measures in place, said Howard Burke, executive director of the Florida Association of Christian Colleges and Schools.
His group and others representing established private schools want lawmakers to require accreditation for private schools receiving vouchers or scholarship money. Accreditation would ensure that, among other things, teachers have degrees, libraries are stocked, and fire codes are met.
Burke also argues that students in participating private schools should take standardized tests to measure students' progress.
"It's a worthy program if initiated properly," he said.
Last summer, a major SGO stopped giving scholarships to students attending the Islamic Academy of Florida after a federal indictment accused its co-founder and director, former University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian, of being a U.S. leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
MacKay Jimeson, spokesman for the Florida Education Department, said the news reports are "focusing on a few instances" and the school choice system is successful overall.
"It's providing families with choices in education," he said.
Besides Florida, other states with tax credit systems include Arizona, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Pennsylvania. Other states with voucher systems include Ohio and Wisconsin. Studies on whether voucher programs increase the academic performance of poor and minority children are conflicting and inconclusive, said Jennifer Dounay of the Education Commission of the States.
Colorado lawmakers passed a voucher system last year targeted to poor children in failing schools. But a coalition led by a teachers union sued, and a Denver judge suspended the program in December, saying it violated the state constitution.
William Moloney, education commissioner, called it a temporary setback. This session, the Colorado Legislature is considering a voucher bill specifically for special education children. "We're going to keep pushing because we think we're right," Moloney said.
Smith, the sponsor, notes that South Carolina's bill is in the beginning stages. He said he already has received many "very constructive suggestions for changes."
"I agree with it in concept," said Rep. Wallace Scarborough, R-Charleston. "Now that it's introduced, we'll tear it up pretty good and prevent as much fraud as possible."
A report detailing fiscal impacts of South Carolina's proposal is expected to be released this week.
Sanford says tax credits would save money because students who transfer to private schools would leave behind roughly half the $8,168 it costs, on average, to educate each child in South Carolina.
The state Department of Education uses a figure of $7,412 per-student average. The governor's higher figure includes capital projects.
Critics doubt the money-saving argument, saying overhead and program costs won't diminish with a few less students per class.
Cost-per-student varies by school, with smaller schools spending more per child. Rural Dorchester 4 spends an average of $8,559 per child, while Dorchester 2 spends $6,247. Berkeley County spends $6,836 per child, and Charleston County spends $7,373 per student, according to audited 2001-02 figures. Private schools do not have to report how much they spend per student.
The bill has 35 House sponsors, including one Democrat. There is no Senate sponsor yet.
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