South Carolina has sharply increased spending on public schools for forty years. The results have been disappointing, just as in other states. In recent years, legislatures in states across the country have passed school choice measures as a means to help with student achievement.  Scholars have found results so positive that President Bush in January, 2004 signed a bill from Congress authorizing a school choice program in Washington, D.C. 

School choice not only leads to happier parents and students among those who choose where they are educated, it leads to improvements in public schools. School choice forces the education establishment to loosen their stanglehold on principals and teachers and allows them to focus on teaching students rather than pleasing bureaucrats.

Although there are different types of school choice programs, SCRG supports legislation that allows for both state income tax credits and scholarships as the way to create school choice and give all parents the ability to decide how and where their children are educated.

If a child chooses to attend another school, only a portion of state monies would follow the child.  Ultimately, there would be more money to spend on fewer students, thus increasing per pupil spending.

School Choice will:

• Empower parents by restoring their right to select the best schools for their children.
• Assist low and middle income families by giving them educational options that they currently don't have.
• Improve public school performance by allowing parents to be customers with the power to leave.

 

 

“I continue to believe passionately that a parent ought to be able to decide what school works best for their child, and as a consequence believe in the need for choice in education and market based solutions to education.”

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford