School Choice Is Still Alive In South Carolina Despite Recent Setback

Education
October 23, 2024

This article by Patrick Gleason originally ran in Forbes.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper (D) and other opponents of expanded school choice celebrated the South Carolina Supreme Court’s September decision in Eidson et al. v. SC Department of Education et al, a ruling which blocked implementation of the state’s new Education Scholarship Trust Fund (ESTF), an education savings account (ESA)-style program created by South Carolina lawmakers in 2023.

South Carolina’s ESTF program was designed to provide low-income families with an annual scholarship of approximately $6,000 that can be used to attend private school. Given the timing of the South Carolina Supreme Court’s ruling in Eidson, some suspect it was deliberately delayed. The court struck down the ESTF program at a time when thousands of children from low-income households were only a couple of weeks into the fall semester at a new private school of their choosing, which they were only able to attend with the help of the ESTF program.

“The Supreme Court waited over 180 days after oral arguments to deliver a decision that has been devastating to families who had every reason to believe that their ESTF school choice scholarships would be funded for the entire 2024-25 school year,” said Wendy Damron, president and CEO of the Palmetto Promise Institute, in an October 17 statement. In that statement, Damron announced her organization is stepping up to help children who were planning to use the ESTF program to attend a private school this school year until the South Carolina Supreme Court scrambled those plans.

“Over the last few weeks, our hearts have been broken by the stories of the low-income families who had settled into new schools that better fit their children only to have their scholarships ripped away in the middle of the school year. But we have good news,” Damron added. “I am pleased to announce that Palmetto Promise Institute will be able to fund ESTF scholarships for school tuition though the end of the calendar year due to the generosity of Jeff Yass, a Pennsylvania businessman and philanthropist who is a strong believer in the power of school choice options to change lives. We know the next quarter’s school tuition is soon due, and we are moving quickly to provide funds to schools as soon as logistics allow.”

The Palmetto Promise Institute is making these funds “available for students currently attending a private school under the ESTF program.” For any other individuals, families, or foundations who wish to join in supporting ESTF families for 2024-25 school year, Damron notes that her organization is continuing to accept donations, “100% of which go to pay ESTF families’ school tuition.”

Palmetto Promise Institute is directing donated funds to schools to help defray the costs of keeping ESTF students in the class even though the program is no longer in effect. Damron explains that the primary goal here is to ensure no child is forced to go back to the failing school from which the ESTF program helped them escape.

School Choice Still Very Much Alive In South Carolina

Despite the South Carolina Supreme Court’s September 11 ruling in Eidson, which found that state funds cannot be used for private school tuition and fees, an ESA-style program like the ESTF is still very much a live prospect in South Carolina. Even though it has only been a few months since the Eidson ruling, the composition of the South Carolina Supreme Court has since changed.

“S.C. Senate president Thomas Alexander and S.C. House speaker Murrell Smith have claimed school choice will be their ‘highest priority’ in the coming legislative session – which convenes in January,” FITSNews reported on October 17. “While we are still several weeks away from bills being introduced ahead of that session, several pieces of legislation proposed in the previous (2023-2024) session are expected to resurface.”

Those who recently succeeded in overturning the ESTF program in court may come to find, perhaps as soon as next year, that their efforts unintentionally helped South Carolina become the thirteenth state with a universal school choice program. Roy Cooper and other school choice opponents who celebrated the September ruling in South Carolina may soon discover it was a Prryhic victory.