South Carolina Senate subcommittee makes plans to bring back school choice program

The South Carolina Senate Education Subcommittee met Tuesday to discuss the future of the state’s education savings accounts (ESA) program shuttered by the state’s supreme court.

The Education Scholarship Trust Fund (ESTF) program was passed in May 2023 to provide scholarships to low-income students. However, the South Carolina Supreme Court struck down the program in September, citing the state’s Blaine Amendment, which says that “no money shall be paid from public funds nor shall the credit of the State or any of its political subdivisions be used for the direct benefit of any religious or other private educational institution.”

However, the Palmetto Promise Institute (PPI), a supporter of the school choice program, contends that the ESTF “allocates state funds into a parent-controlled account for use on approved educational expenses,” which they argue qualifies as “indirect funding” permissible under the state’s Blaine Amendment, the organization’s President and CEO Wendy Damron told The Lion.

“We feel this was an incorrect decision, and we hope that it can be remedied with a new bill.”

One such bill was announced during the Senate subcommittee meeting. The measure would make the ESTF a lottery scholarship that won’t go into a general fund. Since lottery funding is not classified as public money in the state, it will likely steer clear of the Blaine Amendment, according to the Senate Education Subcommittee Chairman Greg Hembree.

Hembree also emphasized that funding ESAs will not harm public education.

“Some see this as an existential threat to public education,” he said. “That could not be further from the truth.” 

He said that school choice is about finding a good match for students.  

Students who have been harmed are those who were depending on the ESAs when the court’s ruling suddenly took them away. 

Beth Martyn, the principal of Divine Redeemer Catholic School in Hanahan, South Carolina told The Lion that 30 of her 163 students were impacted by the ruling, and she hopes the new program is “going to work” and that it’s “too important to not continue.”  

Her staff “worked tirelessly to recruit families” for this program, before it was taken away.

In a private meeting with parents of students who are being impacted by the program’s closure, Program Manager Joshua Gross said that even with the gutted program, families will still be able to reapply. 

“You’re going to get an email because the renewal window for existing students opens Friday,” he said. “Because you were in the program this year, even with everything that happened, you’ve got first dibs to stay in the program.” 

Parents will have to renew within the next four weeks to stay in the program.  

PPI has been raising funds “to assist the schools to continue to educate the ESTF students,” Damron said. The organization has received “donations and pledges totaling $2.1 million.” 

“We hope the Legislature will include a remedy for the current families in their legislation, but we don’t know if they will, so we will continue to fundraise for this effort as needed,” she continued.  

One of these donors is Jeff Yass, who gave $900,000 to support the program.  

“We’re moving the new legislation as quickly as possible,” Chairwoman of the House Education and Public Works Committee Shannon Erickson told The Lion. “To have a Senate hearing before the end of the year and then have it taken up at the beginning of session, is our way of making sure that the issue is presented in a timely manner.” 

Parents and the Institute for Justice also filed a petition Dec. 5 urging the South Carolina Supreme Court to restore the program. 

“We always have to take what happens in the judiciary as part of the equation, and if they come back with something different, then we will adjust our forward motion, and we’ll either shore up what we’ve got, or be happy with what we have depending what those answers are from the courts,” Erickson continued.  

Damron is confident “the Legislature will be able to make the changes necessary to the bill to satisfy the court.”