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Should SC voters have a say on using tax money for private school tuition? What one senator says

South Carolina state Sen. Greg Hembree, R-Little River, speaks about a bill altering the procedure used to elect judges in the state, Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)
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AP
South Carolina state Sen. Greg Hembree, R-Horry, speaks on the Senate floor on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

The chair of the S.C. Senate Education Committee on Dec. 10, 2024, proposed the state spend lottery dollars in the budget on private school tuition scholarships to get around the Constitution's prohibition on spending taxpayer dollars on private education costs.

A top lawmaker in the South Carolina Senate said Tuesday that he is open to asking voters whether to eliminate the state Constitution's ban on spending taxpayer dollars on private education costs.

But, for now, Senate Education Chairman Greg Hembree says there's an easier pathway to pay for low-income students to attend private or religious schools in the state.

The Horry County Republican said Tuesday that he will pre-file a bill this week that would pay for the state-funded scholarship program out of the Legislature's lottery account.

"There are a lot of programs that are funded out of lottery funds, that would be, could be paid for out of general fund money," Hembree told reporters Tuesday. "You're really just seeing a shift. You're moving this expense to the general fund, to leave capacity in the lottery fund to be used for this program."

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster shows his signature on a bill that will allow parents to spend public money on private schools as part of a small-scale pilot program on Thursday, May 4, 2023, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)
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AP
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster shows his signature on a bill that will allow parents to spend public money on private schools as part of a small-scale pilot program on Thursday, May 4, 2023, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

The S.C. Supreme Court has now twice ruled that using public money for private school tuition violates the state Constitution.

Four years ago, the Supreme Court told Gov. Henry McMaster in a unanimous 5-0 decision that he could not set aside $32 million in federal COVID money to pay for one-time tuition grants for some 5,000 K-12 students to attend private schools in the state.

And in September, the court in a 3-2 split ruling overturned the crux of the so-called South Carolina Education Scholarship Trust Fund Act. The majority opinion focused on the Constitution's ban on using taxpayer dollars for the "direct benefit of private educational institutions," known as the Blaine Amendment.

In the law's absence, private donors have helped cover tuition for students.

So when the General Assembly begins a new session Jan. 14, the Republican-controlled state Senate's first order of business will be to, once again, try and enact the publicly-funded scholarship program to give some parents the option to send their children to private schools.

To get around the court's objection, Hembree's proposal would cover the costs of scholarships using money paid for by the state's Education Lottery.

Outlined Tuesday, Hembree's bill would increase income eligibility to 600% — about $187,000 for a family of four — of the federal poverty limit by 2026, and raise the scholarship amount to what the state pays in per-pupil funding to school districts, more than $8,000 this year.

His proposal would also remove any other eligibility criteria, except for residency and poverty guidelines, and expand the list of eligible expenses to include uniform costs and inter-district transfer fees.

The bill caps enrollment of up to 15,000 in the program's third year.

Hembree, a North Myrtle Beach attorney, said vouchers paid for by the Lottery, rather than through the state's general fund budget, should satisfy the Court's objections.

"It's the first priority for the Senate Republican Caucus," Hembree told reporters.

House Education Chairwoman Shannon Erickson said she is reviewing the proposal. Erickson, R-Beaufort, sat in on Hembree's subcommittee discussion Tuesday.

South Carolina's Education Lottery accounts over fiscal years.
S.C. REVENUE AND FISCAL AFFAIRS OFFICE
South Carolina's Education Lottery accounts over fiscal years.

Millions of dollars flow into the state's Education Lottery account every year, most of which covers higher education needs, including tuition scholarships, loans and programs.

The account also covers other one-time expenses, including capital requests.

Reallocating lottery dollars for private school tuition will be court challenged, Hembree acknowledged. But, he said, "You don't not do it because it's going to get challenged."

It also might pose a problem for other programs currently funded by lottery money.

In his September dissent, Justice John Few wrote, "Examples of constitutionally dubious scholarships and programs include the South Carolina HOPE Scholarship, the Legislative Incentive for Future Excellence (LIFE) Scholarship, and the Palmetto Fellow Scholarship.
The First Steps 4K Program directs public funds to hundreds of kindergarten programs that are privately owned and operated. These 'First Steps' funds are paid directly to the providers, not to the students through their parents. Applying the majority's reasoning, all of these scholarships and programs (and many more) may now be on the chopping block."

Hembree told reporters Tuesday he thinks the General Assembly is funding programs like First Steps constitutionally, but said it does leave that program "vulnerable."

"We've got a pathway," he said.

A rockier pathway perhaps for the Legislature would be sticking the question to voters.

The Legislature has often expressed uneasiness putting constitutional questions on the ballot — voters in other red states have rejected similar private school efforts — but some House and Senate leaders say it may be time to let voters decide.

In the lower chamber, House Judiciary Chairman Weston Newton has proposed legislation to do just that by asking voters whether they support repealing the constitutional ban that currently prohibits spending public money on private school tuition.

On X, formerly Twitter, freshman state Sen. Matt Leber, R-Charleston, posted that he intends to file similar legislation.

"I think that that's probably the right answer as well. I don't think it's an either or. I think it's a both," Hembree said. "... Leaving around this sort of, left over kind of junk from an age of discrimination is a bad idea anyway."

S.C. Senate Education Chairman Greg Hembree speaks to reporters about a bill to use lottery dollars to cover private school tuition scholarships Dec. 10, 2024

Maayan Schechter (My-yahn Schek-ter) is a news reporter with South Carolina Public Radio and ETV. She worked at South Carolina newspapers for a decade, previously working as a reporter and then editor of The State’s S.C. State House and politics team, and as a reporter at the Aiken Standard and the Greenville News. She grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and graduated from the University of North Carolina-Asheville in 2013.
Russ McKinney has 30 years of experience in radio news and public affairs. He is a former broadcast news reporter in Spartanburg, Columbia and Atlanta. He served as Press Secretary to former S.C. Governor Dick Riley for two terms, and for 20 years was the chief public affairs officer for the University of South Carolina.