By james art 
Columbia, SC (WCIV) – South Carolina could soon see the revival of her “School Choice” program.
State senators adopted a bill on Thursday, which will use the lottery money in South Carolina to finance private school scholarships and other expenses after the State Supreme Court reduced the use of the common fund in September.
What is not yet known is if the Supreme Court would agree with the legislators that the lottery is not public dollars.
“Every child deserves to have a good education and there are too many children who are trapped in an unsuccessful school,” says state -owned senator Larry Grams (R, Berkeley and Charleston Counts).
Reading “The South Carolina Senate is progressing a new version of the K-12 school vouchers.”
Grooms is one of the three sponsors of the bill.
If signed by law, it will provide up to $ 10,000 to approximately $ 7,500 for payment for training and other expenses in its first year. Families constituting up to 300% of the federal poverty line will have the right to apply, which is about $ 93,000 for a family of four.
The program will then expand to 15,000 acceptable students and 400% of the federal poverty level by 2027.
The sum of the student’s scholarship will also depend on the average funding of a student, which every school received from the state in the previous year.
Financing a student for fiscal year 2024-25 is evaluated as:
- Berkli County: $ 17, 965
- County Charleston: $ 26, 289
- Dorchester County 2: $ 14, 611
- Dorchester County 4: $ 23, 058
Grooms is confident that this program would lead to competition for public and private schools while creating new educational opportunities.
“I believe that once parents understand the value they can receive in another school, we will start to have many independent schools that do not exist now,” he said.
But critics of the bill say the money of the state lottery should be focused on existing needs, such as the bus fleet of the public school and scholarships system at the State College.
“We know we need new buses,” said Kathleen Law. “We know we need these scholarships to be there for these students. We have to focus on the things we know they work.”
Low is a teacher at the Public High School and President of the Berkli County Association. She worries that the choice of the state legislative body to prioritize the cost of private education will lead to the fact that teachers in public schools are leaving the job.
Low has already said that many have been burned by paying school supplies from their pockets, but still want to see their public schools to succeed.
“Our ability to hold teachers has a lot to do for the stability we can create for these teachers,” Law said. “This is not stable, what is present.”
After a final, procedural vote in the State Senate next week, the bill will move to the State House.
While domestic Republicans support the “choice of school”, it is not certain whether they will support the use of lottery funding.