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Senators Hear Earful from Parents about Need for School Choice web posted April 24, 2009 COLUMBIA – More than 200 passionate parents, activists and educators lined up in Columbia this morning to address a group of State Senators about the pressing need for private School Choice in South Carolina.The public hearing, called by the K-12 Education Subcommittee of the Senate’s Education Committee, allowed lawmakers to hear firsthand from parents who want more equal access to a wide range ofclassrooms for their children. Among the activists and educators who came to speak were members of the South Carolina Independent School Association, the South Carolina Independent Schools Serving Minority Children, the South Carolina Association of Independent HomeSchools, the South Carolina Association of Christian Schools, the Diocese of Charleston, and dozens of parents of public, private, home school and special needs children. Many of the parents spoke with tears in their eyes about how their children had been failed by public schools. In addition to a packed public hearing room two additional rooms were required to seat all those who came to support the legislation. A key theme of the remarks was that a one-size-fits-all public school system often fails to meet the diverse needs of individual children. In prepared remarks Larry Watts, Executive Director of the Independent School Association, explained: “Our Creator makes every child unique, and that means special strengths and challenges are faced in the classroom. No single model of instruction or curriculum will ever serve all children.” Other speakers noted that School Choice has been wildly successful and highly popular in the form of H.O.P.E., L.I.F.E. and Palmetto Fellows scholarships for public and private college students in South Carolina. It was also explained how school choice will lead to an increase per-student funding in the public schools since all the locally collected tax revenue (and half of the state revenue) would continue to flow to public districts when individual children transfer out. The School Choice proposal discussed at the meeting would provide a modest credit for parents who send their children to independent schools, or home school their children. Individual and corporate donors to nonprofit scholarship granting organizations serving low-income children would also be eligible for credits. Tax credit programs similar to the proposed South Carolina Education Opportunity Act (S. 520) already exist in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Florida. Last year over 44,000 low-income students in Pennsylvania alone benefited from this type educational corporate tax credit. South Carolina already offers dozens of tax credits for money saving activities ranging from biomass energy production and trickle irrigation to corporate childcare and premarital counseling. © Copyright 2009
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