School Choice Shouldn’t Be Confined To College Students

This guest editorial appeared in the Charleston Post and Courier on Saturday, November 29, 2008:

People like choices.

This simple aphorism is the basis of South Carolina’s most popular and far-reaching educational reform in the last four decades: state scholarships for higher education.

Throughout South Carolina the HOPE, LIFE and Palmetto Fellows Scholarships have helped thousands of students attend college. Many of the students come from disadvantaged circumstances. Some will be the first in their family to attend college. For others the scholarship helps lighten the load of high interest student loans.

These scholarships can be used at a wide range of public and private colleges and universities. This is a personal choice, rightly left to students and their parents.

The basic concept is simple. College graduates are important for the state’s economy. Helping students obtain a higher degree serves a public purpose. Extending the opportunity to low-income students also reduces social and economic inequality.

These scholarships are an excellent example of school choice. Parents, educators and lawmakers have praised them unanimously.

Which begs the questions: why aren’t we offering similar choices to students in grades K through 12?

It can’t be an issue of student age. State lawmakers have already created a school choice model of tuition scholarships for pre-kindergarten children through First Steps, which has served thousands of low-income families since 1992.

And it is not a matter of money. Per-student spending in South Carolina’s public schools averages $11,480 while proposals for choice scholarships and tax credits rarely exceed $2,500. This would result in a financial windfall for the public schools, which receive most of their money through programs that are funded in block grants.

There must be something peculiar to the K-12 system. Neither public colleges nor public pre-kindergarten schools lobbied to fight against school choice. Both saw it as an exciting expansion of access, not as a threat.

The big difference with K-12 schools is political.

The K-12 public school system is a $7.9 billion dollar a year institution that believes it has the sole civic and moral authority to educate children in South Carolina. It is has raised protection of the organizational status quo above the instructional needs of students. This is a shame.

Through political partnerships with the teachers’, administrators’, superintendents’ and school boards’ unions it has spent millions of dollars to fight change. It even worked hard to block scholarships targeted at special needs and high disability students.

The most telling insight about this mean-spirited fight came from Debi Bush, president of the South Carolina School Boards Association. She recently described a call for universal educational access as a negative attack on “dedicated public school teachers, principals, students and parents.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

Parents in upper- middle- and high-income families already enjoy K-12 choices. They can move between attendance zones or districts, place their kids in a private school or sacrifice a parent’s time and income in order to home school their child. Many other families don’t have these luxuries.

The Department of Education estimates that average private school tuition in the United States was $6,600 per student last year. The average rate was even lower in South Carolina. This is half of public school per-student spending. A $1,000 tax credit or a $2,500 scholarship would dramatically expand the number of families in South Carolina who could afford to consider homeschooling or private schools. This would free millions of dollars for traditional public schools. It would also be a better way to fund public charter, magnet and virtual schools that are struggling to win their share of financial support from local school districts.

Choice has worked well for pre-kindergarten and college students in South Carolina. It has greatly expanded student access to quality instruction. This has benefited the students as well as the public in general.

Students in grades K through 12 deserve the same opportunities.

Randy Page is president of South Carolinians for Responsible Government.

http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/nov/29/school_choice_shouldnt_be_confined_colle63348/

School Tax Credits Make Sense for State, Families

This was published in The State on Saturday, November 29, 2008:

 

I’ve been amazed at the increasingly divisive hyperbole from those opposed to private-school choice. The rhetoric is becoming predictable: Supporters of private school choice are driven by money from outside interest groups, they don’t care about poor children; the proposals are designed to help the rich save a few bucks, they’ve been rejected by South Carolinians.

The fact is that many of us have sincere and honorable reasons to support tax credits for private education. As the board chairman of a low-tuition private Christian school located near the Corridor of Shame, I’d like to offer my perspective.

While I was deployed to Afghanistan last year, my oldest daughter began attending the fifth grade at Orangeburg Christian Academy just outside Orangeburg. The teachers are selfless and dedicated individuals who make an average salary well below that of public school teachers, and none of the state benefits. The students are great kids from varied racial and socio-economic backgrounds.

The parents are primarily hard-working men and women who care deeply about their children’s education and character. Many families are willing to tighten belts in other areas to give their children a Christian education. The tuition runs about $3,000 a year, though this figure varies a bit based on the grade level. It can be compared to the $11,480 of combined tax money for students in public school.

Back to my daughter. When I was able to speak with my family from overseas, I discovered a new joy in my daughter’s voice due to her Christian school environment. In particular, she had made a new best friend —an intelligent and well-mannered girl from a hard-working African-American family. My daughter spoke about her all the time. I came back to America about the time the school year ended, but had the pleasure of meeting my daughter’s friend. She was a great companion to my daughter, and I looked forward to both of them continuing their friendship through the years.

During the summer, I was invited to become the chairman of the school’s board and happily accepted. In meeting all the wonderful teachers, parents and students, I felt passionate about volunteering to help in any way possible. I even decided to donate the profits of a book I wrote to low-tuition Christian schools.

When classes started back this fall, my daughter and I were crushed. It turned out that her new best friend could not return because her parents could no longer afford the tuition. I quickly discovered many parents in a similar situation, on the financial edge within the family budget to keep their children at our school. When the financial crisis hit, Principal Cynthia Poor told me about the hardship on parents. One father had broken down in tears because he could no longer afford to keep his children in private school. As a faithful believer, he desperately wanted his kids to receive a Christian education.

When some parents recommended a change to a four-day week to save money, our board quickly met about the issue. There were a number of pros and cons to the change, but for me the decisive factor was the families being able to afford school. We decided in favor of a four-day week, and Ms. Poor implemented that change. There was much work to make it reality. However , but we were willing to do anything to help these families.

Such struggles occur at low-tuition private schools throughout South Carolina. This is why I support tax credits. For those with the resources, a tax credit is likely not the factor preventing private education. However, for many working families, it can make the decisive difference. It’s a win-win situation: We spend $11,480 in local, state and federal taxes for each child in public schools. Doesn’t it make sense to offer a $2,000 tax credit if that will mean one less child to pay for in public school?

Some argue that those favoring tax credits don’t care about the children in South Carolina. That just isn’t true. With tax credits, we are all still responsible for South Carolina’s children. A smaller number of children in public school would not only be funded by their parents and other adults without children, they would also be funded by affluent parents of children in private school. The main difference is that working parents would have an easier time making the same choice as wealthy parents. Isn’t that fair to all?

Mr. Connor is an attorney with Murphy-Grantland Law Firm in Columbia and chairman of the board of Orangeburg Christian Academy.

http://www.thestate.com/satopinion/story/604899.html