If battles over the budget, voter ID and an abortion waiting period were not enough, the General Assembly takes another crack at school choice this year as Sen. Robert Ford‘s private choice bill and Sen. Wes Hayes‘ public choice bill are taken up by the Senate Education K-12 Subcommittee.
In previous years during Gov. Mark Sanford‘s administration, all but one private choice bill have been killed in committee. The other one was tabled once it got to the House floor.
Conservatives in Action spokesman and Sandlapper Group founder (the firm ran a slate of Howard Rich-funded candidates) Taft Matney has already taken to Facebook to rally the school choice faithful.
The SC Senate K-12 Education Subcommittee will meet on Thursday, April 23, 2009 from 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. in room 308 of the Gressette Building at the Statehouse complex in Columbia.
The discussion will focus on full and open school choice options vs. limited school choice within a closed system.
The Senate version (S.520) of the “South Carolina Educational Opportunity Act” is on the agenda for its first debate.
Also on the agenda is a proposal for public school choice.
Anyone interested in speaking should contact Sally Cauthen by 5:00 p.m. on Monday, April 20, at sallycauthen@scsenate.org or (803) 212-6250.
Each speaker will be allotted 3 to 5 minutes to address the subcommittee.
If you have an interest in bringing educational reform in South Carolina, please make sure you plan to attend and to make your voice heard.
If you have friends and family members who also have an interest in this issue, please forward this message to them. Invite them to join the “Conservatives in Action” group on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=27599823211) , and invite them to sign up for updates by e-mailing conservativesact@gmail.com.
