Debate over school choice to flare up again

School choice: don’t call it a comeback, it’s been here for years. The issue has given birth to some of the nastiest campaign tactics between both sides of the debate. It has gotten supporters and opponents elected. It just hasn’t gone anywhere in the General Assembly.

New York libertarian Howard Rich, who is seen as a benefactor of school choice supporters in South Carolina, has pulled his lobbying money out of the state for the issue, according to sources close to Wolfe Reports. That move is what allegedly led to J.J. Darby leaving the firm Palmetto Policy Group, whose lobbyists represent the leading school choice organization in South Carolina, South Carolinians for Responsible Government.

If true, that move may handicap school choice supporters from the get go this session.

One of Gov. Mark Sanford’s chief legislative priorities, several school choice bills (that is, allowing public money for private schools) have been introduced, but haven’t been successful. The Put Parents In Charge Act was first introduced in 2004. Four more bills were filed in 2005, and only one made it to a floor vote, being tabled in the House by a vote of 60-53. Every other bill, including several bills under the title Educational Opportunity Scholarship Act, died in committee.

But, that isn’t stopping the Governor, who in a recent interview with The State called school choice one of his major priorities this session. There is an expectation that with an influx of freshmen legislators, there will be the impetus in the Legislature this year to get a version of the policy passed.

“Obviously, there’s some new faces in the General Assembly, which we hope will impact the chance of a school choice bills passage,” Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said. “The other thing is that there is a growing realization that what we’ve been doing hasn’t worked.”

Sawyer said that there haven’t been significant improvements in the 10 years since the passage of the Education Accountability Act.

“Everybody at the time said, ‘This will fix it,’ and it didn’t fix it,” he said. “If we’re going to catch up to other states, much less other parts of the world, we have to try a more transformative approach to improving education.”

Rep. Nathan Ballentine, a school choice supporter, said that one of the problems has been that there are legislators that support public school choice, or assistance for students who want to attend private schools, but not both.

“The result – nothing is done and so the status quo wins and, sadly, the ones that lose are the kids and families,” he said. “Personally, I believe there has to be some way we can look past opposing camps and see the debate as it should be – what is best for our children and our state as a whole?”

Rep. Joan Brady, though, doesn’t see a school choice bill having any more success this year than previous bills had in earlier sessions.

“I don’t really think it has a chance. Right now, our main concentration is going to be how to make our schools in South Carolina the best, in a very difficult fiscal year,” she said. “Not to mention, in terms of vouchers, we just don’t have the luxury of reimbursing parents to send their children to private school at this time.”

One of the few Democrats to flip a GOP district in 2008, Rep. Anton Gunn, agrees, while supporting a public school choice plan.

“I would like to believe that the vast majority of the General Assembly knows that what Gov. Sanford proposed in the past was unaccountable, unaffordable and would not help the vast majority of children in our state,” he pointed out. “Secondly, Superintendent Jim Rex already has a plan for public school choice.”

Reiterating that what constitutes school choice is in the eye of the beholder, Sen. Shane Massey said that passing a bill will still be tough.

“School choice has become a very broad term, and I don’t know what might be included in the legislation that is proposed,” he said. “I think the numbers for school choice have improved, but it’s a difficult and complex issue.”