The primary function of the $54,000 study commissioned by the S.C. Policy Council is to measure the fiscal impact of Gov. Mark Sanford's "Put Parents In Charge" proposal and its enabling legislation. The report, available at http://www.scpolicycouncil.com/, claims that state money for public school students will actually increase as a projected 42,625 students leave for private schools over the next five years.
A second opinion is needed. Both the state School Boards Association and the S.C. Association of School Administrators have commissioned fiscal impact studies. In the end, the cost to each public school district needs to be known and verified, not by ideologues but by the people who are held accountable for running the schools each day.
But offering hefty tax credits and even scholarships, which also are tax-supported, clearly takes money out of the public till. And it is there that the plan runs into its greatest trouble.
Using public money to support private institutions that don't have to tell anyone what they do with the money is atrocious public policy.
Not only does it invite scandal, but it defies a clear principle in the state Constitution, which reads:
"No money shall be paid from public funds nor shall the credit of the state or any of its political subdivisions be used for the direct benefit of any religious or other private educational institution."
Private schools have always played an important role in South Carolina and the nation. Today, home schools are also a growing part of the mix.
But society's responsibility has not changed. Its responsibility is to the public schools, exclusively. These are the schools that must take all comers. These are the schools that enhance, or diminish, property values and community pride. These are the schools that must report grade-by-grade test scores, SAT scores and battery after battery of data to encourage accountability. Public dollars belong there, not in selective schools that are not accountable to the public either fiscally or educationally.
The S.C. Policy Council study laments that parents who send their children to private schools "are paying taxes to support schools that they are not using." That is wrong. It is in everyone's best interest -- including retirees and those without children -- that public schools are successful. America is not based on a system of user fees. Others could contend they never had to call the police or firefighters, so why pay for that protection. Not everybody uses a public park, but it is to everyone's benefit that it is there.
The S.C. Policy Council study reflects an eagerness to help private schools meet their dreams of growth. It is fine for the private schools to grow, but that is not the role of government or tax dollars. It is South Carolina's duty to grow the opportunities for the more than 600,000 students in its public schools. Any deviation from that will be costly.