S.C. lawmakers discuss using lottery funds for school vouchers
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - State lawmakers are preparing for a new legislative session, and one of their top priorities involves South Carolina’s private school voucher program.
Republican lawmakers want to reinstate the program that would allow state dollars to be spent on private-school tuition.
A key provision of the private-school voucher program, which would allow families to receive publicly funded scholarships for private school tuition, was struck down by the South Carolina Supreme Court in September after justices found it unconstitutional.
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Restoring the program is the top item on the agenda for the Senate’s Republican majority.
“The urgency is because we’ve got a couple thousand students that, because of the way the ruling came down, they’ve been left in no man’s land,” said Sen. Greg Hembree, R-Horry, chairman of the Education Committee.
The ruling, weeks into the current school year, from the South Carolina Supreme Court, found the earlier version of the Education Scholarship Trust Fund program violated the state’s constitutional ban on public dollars directly benefitting private schools.
That money came from the state’s general fund, so Republican senators are now proposing for the money for this new program to come from lottery revenue.
Lottery dollars currently pay for existing college scholarship programs that can be used at private colleges.
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“Why do I think this will be constitutional? Because the Supreme Court has told us this will be constitutional,” Hembree said.
But some Democrats are skeptical this would court muster — as any new voucher program is just about certain to be hit with another lawsuit.
“It remains unconstitutional, and I don’t know how we’re going to get around that. We know it’s going to be challenged. And I would love to hear your idea on how lottery dollars are not public dollars. It just seems to me that they clearly are,” said Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, the minority leader.
As with the earlier program, families would only be eligible to receive this money if their annual income is below a certain threshold.
But Democrats also took issue with this new bill raising that threshold so that a family of four making just shy of 200,000 a year would qualify.
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They say it defeats Republicans’ original intention of the program – to give more options to lower-income families that otherwise can’t afford those options.
“We really are ultimately going to be subsidizing every private school in this state because there’s going to be no disincentive for every student in that school to sign up for this program,” Hutto said.
By this time next week – Republicans hope that bill will be ready for a debate on the Senate floor.
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