S.C. school-choice expansion legislation blocked
A state Senate panel Wednesday rejected making most S.C. students eligible for the Palmetto State’s private school-choice program.
That program now operates exclusively for students with disabilities.
Senators passed on adopting a House plan to open up the $8 million-a-year choice program to the children of active-duty military or students considered “at risk” because they, for example, live in poverty.
Instead, they agreed to give the state Department of Revenue direct oversight of the nonprofits that now raise money from taxpayers to fund tuition grants for special-need students who go to private schools.
About 1,300 students have received those grants since the program was launched last year. At the same time, the state began offering tax credits to encourage donations to the nonprofits that distribute the grants.
Senators also abandoned a proposal that the leader of the school-choice program’s most successful scholarship charity said was aimed at getting rid of her.
That provision “could be perceived to be directed at one particular scholarship group,” said state Sen. Wes Hayes, R-Rock Hill. “That was not the intent.”
The Senate is considering reauthorizing the program in next year’s state budget, which starts July 1.
However, complaints against one nonprofit – that it has pressured parents and schools to donate, and offered parents grants in exchange for donations that also qualify for state tax credits – are driving calls for reform.
Leaders of the Palmetto Kids First Scholarship Program and its supporters denied those claims Wednesday.
Senators rejected a proposal that would have barred Palmetto Kids’ director Olga Lisinska from raising money for the nonprofit because her husband, Jeff Davis, has declared bankruptcy. The couple have said they are being targeted politically for their nonprofit’s success, having raised nearly $12 million, accounting for 85 percent of the school-choice program’s activity.
Gigi Lewis, the parent of a former private-school student, urged senators to give parents more input on whether nonprofits are asking for donations in a professional way. The nonprofits are allowed to use up to 5 percent of the money that they raise for their expenses.
“While you call them nonprofits, they are making money,” Lewis said.
Having raised $12 million, Palmetto Kids could have set aside $600,000 for its expenses in 2014. But Lisinska said she requested only $182,300 in management fees.
This story was originally published April 1, 2015 at 11:11 PM with the headline "S.C. school-choice expansion legislation blocked."