FILE – South Carolina state house (Photo credit: WLOS Staff)
(WPDE) — A showdown could be brewing between the SC Senate and House on School Vouchers to use public funds toward private school tuition.
The House Education and Public Works Committee met Wednesday to discuss the Senate’s Education Lottery bill. S. 62 would turn some lottery funds into a scholarship fund families could then use to pay for private schools.
The bill was amended to remove the Senate language transferring state Education Lottery funds to regular general funds and to add a trustee appointed by the Superintendent of Education to oversee the funds.
The voucher plan heading to the House floor looks a lot like the one struck down by the state Supreme Court last year. A key difference will be the money would flow through a designated trustee instead of a “trust fund.”
It’s a complete rework of Horry County Sen. Greg Hembree’s bill, which was fast-tracked through the Senate earlier this year.
The state Senate’s initial approach in the bill it passed last month used lottery profits to fund the K-12 scholarships and increased the scholarship amount.
Both chambers’ proposals are an attempt to revive the K-12 private tuition payments halted by the state Supreme Court last September which ruled 3-2 finding that the transfers violated the state constitution’s ban on public money directly benefiting private education.
The rest of the law remains intact, meaning money is still flowing to parents’ accounts for still-allowed spending, including tutoring, textbooks, and fees for students who transferred from one public school district to another, and sign-ups for the program continue.
During the committee hearing, Meka Childs the Education Choice and Family Engagement Director for SCDE, reported roughly 3,000 students enrolled through the Education Scholarship Trust Fund. About 8,000 applied for the 5,000 open slots. Some key criteria would also change if the committee version is passed.
The current school voucher law provides eligibility to families whose income is no greater than 200% of the federal poverty level and whose households are Medicaid-eligible. The amendment grants eligibility to SC families whose household income is no greater than 300% of the federal poverty level in the initial year, but that would rise to 400% in the second year.
The number of students allowed to use the fund would be 10,000 in the initial year and 15,000 in the 2026-27 school year. After that, the number of program participants shall be determined based on funding as determined yearly by the General Assembly.
According to the American Council of Aging citing Medicaid numbers, that threshold would be $46,950 for a household of one, $63,450 for a household of two, $79,950 for a household of three, and $96,450 for a household of four.
Unlike the lottery-funded Senate version, the House version would use general fund dollars to support the program, a decision solidified by a House Ways and Means Committee budget proposal also released this week.
It set aside a combined $45 million in recurring and non-recurring funding for the scholarship fund.
Also unlike the Senate plan, the House bill keeps scholarship amounts at $6,000 next school year.
The bill was passed out of the committee 13-4 along party lines. It will be on the calendar for the House when they return next week.
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