S.C. lawmakers try to work out wrinkles in school voucher effort

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - A bill that would give certain South Carolina families public dollars to send their kids to private schools is back up for debate at the State House.

Republicans are trying to again this private-school voucher program – after the state Supreme Court ruled that type of spending was not legal.

The biggest difference between this new bill that senators are now debating – and the one the Supreme Court partially struck down last year – is that the new one would fund the private school voucher program with lottery revenues.

That’s important because it’s how some Republicans believe the program could court muster this time around.

Democrats across the board are against the program as a whole – believing the millions of dollars that would go toward paying for private school tuition – could instead be spent on improving public schools.

“We could undertake on a path, using that kind of funding, to build schools all across the state,” said Sen. Ronnie Sabb, D-Williamsburg.

But on Tuesday, Republican differences on significant details like which families should be eligible became more evident.

The current bill would allow families to apply if their income is less than 600% of the federal poverty line about $187,000 for a family of four.

“Y’all, that ain’t middle class in South Carolina,” said Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield.

Massey proposed an amendment that would cut that maximum eligibility to 400% – where it was under the earlier program the legislature approved.

Massey’s proposal reverted other details of the bill back to the earlier version as well – like reducing how much families would receive, adding testing requirements for ability and requiring providers receiving these dollars perform criminal background checks.

“I want to make sure that we are not g off on something and telling parents, hey this provider is OK, but yeah, we didn’t check to find out whether he’s a sex offender,” Massey said.

But other Republicans argued Massey’s amendment would restrict eligibility and the scholarship amount too much … and make the program harder for families to use.

“If you’re against school choice, you’re for this amendment. If you’re for school choice, you’re against this amendment,” said Sen. Wes Climer, R-York.

Ultimately, more of the Republican supermajority voted against the amendment – doing away with some of those requirements Massey wanted to reinstate and keeping families making nearly $200,000 a year eligible to receive this money.

Senators still have more amendments to get through – and will continue their debate here Wednesday.

If the bill es in the Senate, as expected, it still needs to get through the House of Representatives.

While the House’s Republican supermajority is overwhelming on board with the voucher program as a whole – they say they’re not sold on the idea of funding it using lottery revenues.

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