SC House and Senate reach compromise on K-12 vouchers

Yahoo

16-04-2025

Senate Education Chairman Greg Hembree, R-Little River, leads an Education Committee meeting on Wednesday, April 26, 2023 in Columbia, S.C. (File/Travis Bell/STATEHOUSE CAROLINA/Special to the SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA — Up to 15,000 K-12 students could receive $7,500 scholarships next year for private school tuition under a compromise between the House and Senate that seeks to reinstate and expand payments halted by the state Supreme Court.
After pushback from Democrats over not having enough time to read and fully consider the changes, senators decided to postpone a vote on returning the amended bill to the House.
But that's just a timing issue. Democrats don't have the votes to stop advancement.
For the coming school year, eligibility would continue to be capped at 10,000 students whose parents earn up to 300% of federal poverty guidelines. For a family of four, for example, the income limit would be $96,450.
Eligibility would then max out in 2026-27 at 15,000 students living in households with incomes up to 500% of the poverty line. Under 2025 guidelines, the income limit would be nearly $161,000 for a family of four.
The compromise, adopted 29-13 mostly along party lines, was a deal cut between Senate and House education chairs, said Senate Education Chairman Greg Hembree.
No Democrat voted for it. Two Republicans voted against it: Sen. Shane Martin of Spartanburg County and Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey of Edgefield, who said the proposed expansion could result in higher-income parents taking most of the slots.
The Edgefield Republican, whose children attend public schools, has consistently said the idea was to help children stuck in failing schools whose parents couldn't afford any other option — not as a state bonus for well-off parents already paying for private tuition.
Republican leadership named the issue a top priority this year after the state Supreme Court struck down the private tuition payments last September as unconstitutional. Nearly 800 students have since been relying on private donors to pay their tuition this school year.
SC Senate passes K-12 voucher bill pulling from lottery profits
Typically, when the House and Senate pass differing versions of a proposal, the chambers will send the legislation to a six-member panel — consisting of three legislators from each chamber — to hammer out the differences. But reaching a compromise through that process would have been difficult and might have held up the bill, said Hembree, R-Little River.
So, he met with House Education Chairwoman Shannon Erickson, R-Beaufort, and officials with the state Department of Education to figure out a middle ground, Hembree said.
'The bones of the bill remain pretty much the same,' he said.
SC House passes bill to revive K-12 vouchers. The bulk of this year's money will go unused.
The deal would give students who are in public school and below 300% of federal poverty guidelines priority through early application windows, Hembree said.
The Legislature would also have the option of increasing the number of slots by allocating more money in the budget, he said.
Each student would receive a set $7,500 scholarship for the school year, rather than an amount that would adjust depending on state aid to public schools.
That money could come from either the lottery fund or the state's general fund. The thinking is that the state's high court will find one of the two options constitutional in the expected next legal challenge, Hembree said.
The money would go to students through a third-party 'trustee,' a position the House added in an effort to circumvent the state constitution's ban on public dollars directly benefiting private education.
'In my view, this is an insurance policy,' Hembree said.
The idea of a trustee raised immediate alarms for Sen. Russell Ott, D-St. Matthews.
'What guarantee do we have to the taxpayers of this state that when we let go of that money, we have any control of it whatsoever?' Ott said.
That was just what he noticed on a cursory glance. The proposal could contain more concerns upon closer examination, he said.
'That's what should be concerning to everyone, that I have been able to find those questions in a matter of 30 minutes,' Ott said.