South Carolina Senate passes lottery-funded voucher bill for private schools
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Senate passed a bill Tuesday allowing low-income parents of private school children to receive financial support, similar to what public school kids have been receiving for years from the state lottery.
The K-12 Education Lottery Scholarship would use funds from the South Carolina Education Lottery to fund scholarships for private schools.
In September, the South Carolina Supreme Court struck down a portion of the Education Scholarship Trust Fund Act, a similar measure that allowed parents to use state money for private schools.
Some lawmakers believe this latest bill will survive a legal challenge because it uses lottery money to fund the scholarships.
"What we're looking at now is funding it through a different fund, a different revenue stream that does not go through the general fund," Republican Sen. Hembree, District 28 (Horry County) said in December. "So it's really changing the structure of it to address the court's concern, but the substance of it, the goal of it would still be reached."
The bill had its third reading Tuesday and passed by a vote of 31-9. The bill now heads to the House.
The vote came less than 24 hours after Gov. Henry McMaster listed its passage among his priorities for the months ahead during his annual State of the State address on Wednesday night.
"Parents, not school attendance lines, should determine the education that best suits their child's unique needs," McMaster said during his speech.
The South Carolina Education Association (SCEA) released a statement shortly after the bill passed, calling it an unconstitutional scheme to use public lottery funds to support private schools.
"By the South Carolina State Senate passing the new voucher bill S.62, our Senators have demonstrated a troubling push on a national, partisan agenda item to score political points at the detriment of our public schools which educate over 95% of South Carolina's children," said a statement from the SCEA. "This misguided effort to divert public funds from public education towards private school will further deplete existing resources and undermine our public school system that is to benefit all South Carolinians. We ask that members of the South Carolina House of Representatives halt this bill immediately, ensuring it does not reach the Governor's desk for signing."
According to the South Carolina Lottery's website, the lottery has awarded more than $1.1 billion to public school programs. The new private school grants would appear to be a small amount in comparison.
The bill would give up to 15,000 K-12 students a year state money to use on certain approved expenses, including private school tuition.
Under the bill, a student’s scholarship amount would vary from year to year, based on the average per-pupil funding that public schools received from the state the year before — around $7,500 this year.
At full implementation, students would be eligible if their family’s income was less than 400% of the federal poverty line, which is around $125,000 for a family of four.
The bill now moves to the House of Representatives.
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