House changes tax-credit plan

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The battle is far from over, of course. The governor intends to continue pressing lawmakers to approve his full initiative. But a smaller school-choice program is preferable to the governor's large-scale plan that would divert as much as $231 million in five years from public schools and other vital state programs.

State lawmakers are casting an appropriately skeptical eye at Sanford's plan to provide tax credits for parents to put children in private school or home-school them. Lawmakers on the House Ways and Means committee voted 13-9 to let the state Department of Education select two districts — one poor, one wealthy — where the school tax credits could be tried on an experimental basis. Ideally, a more modest version of Put Parents in Charge would focus only on poorer school districts or students from low-income families — those who most need help to escape failing public schools.

Supporters of school choice are presenting the initiative as a way of providing choices for students from low-income families who truly lack the sort of educational alternatives available to children from wealthier families. But the income cap to qualify is so generous — $75,000 taxable income — that an estimated 96 percent of South Carolina families could benefit from tax credits.

The tax-credit plan should not be a $200 million giveaway to families who already have the wherewithal to put their children in private school. The plan should be limited to students who are stuck in underachieving schools. Well-to-do families already have choices.

Lawmakers also need to deal with issues such as bus transportation. Another concern is that private schools can freely reject students who are struggling or have disciplinary problems or handicaps. But those are the students who might benefit most from school choice. In addition, some academic and fiscal accountability must be attached to private schools that accept students under a school-choice program.

South Carolina needs limited school choice. But state lawmakers should adopt a go-slow approach. What should emerge from this session of the General Assembly is a small-scale pilot project that targets assistance to those who most need it — students from low-income families.