Last month, after eight years of debate within the South Carolina State Legislature, the House of Representatives finally passed the controversial school choice bill. The bill proposes tax deductions for families who choose to educate their children outside of the public school system.
School choice laws have seen strong opposition from people who believe that the tax breaks that would be given to private and home-school parents decrease funding for the state’s public schools, which already receive inadequate funding.
One could also argue that the means used to pass the bill were less than ethical. More than half of the House members who voted in its favor received generous campaign donations from New York businessman Howard Rich, who has been funneling money into South Carolina’s school choice efforts since 2008.
Rich has never owned property in S.C. and would not reap any personal or financial benefits from his donations.
The bill’s proposed changes to taxation and public school funding are problematic but still marginal in comparison to the questionable morality behind the bill being passed in the first place. The representatives who accepted donations from Howard Rich and voted in favor of school choice as a result have essentially been bribed. Legislators need to refocus attention on the opinions and positions of state citizens and away from the desires of a single person who will not benefit from a school choice law in South Carolina.
More Like This
Column: Beware of prison privatization
By Avery Freeman | Oct. 17, 2015