SC Lawmakers Seem to Be Allergic to Educational Opportunity
Law enforcement shouldn't be political.
Why do South Carolina lawmakers want to make it more difficult for families to educate their children? Lawmakers are misinterpreting the very law they approved just last year that creates more learning opportunities, and now the state is on the brink of becoming one of the least family-friendly locales in the southeast. Fortunately, other state officials are pushing back.
State Rep. Neal Collins, who was endorsed by the state teachers union, misidentifies South Carolina’s Education Scholarship Trust Fund as a “voucher” program and told local media that the ESTF does not expand education choices in the state. Still other lawmakers are trying to remove students who are customizing their learning experience while using the scholarships.
In fact, state lawmakers overcame union opposition to support parents and create the scholarships—twice, actually, recreating the scholarship trust fund in 2025 after a state supreme court ruling forced nearly 1,000 children to leave the program a year earlier.
Surveys of South Carolinians find strong support for scholarships like the trust fund, with 75% of parents of K-12 students in favor. Charitable donations and work by the Palmetto Promise Institute allowed students to remain at the schools they chose until lawmakers updated and approved the options in 2025.
Now, however, Collins and other lawmakers are saying families should have fewer choices under the law. The scholarships are not vouchers but are similar to education savings accounts. With a voucher, the state provides parents with funds to pay private school tuition costs. With education savings accounts, as adopted by South Carolina’s regional neighbors in Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, and more than a dozen other states around the country, state officials deposit a portion of a child’s spending from the education formula into a private account that parents use to buy education products and services.
Families can pay for personal tutors, online classes, private school tuition, and more, and even save money from year to year to prepare for high school tuition or college expenses.
Parents are therefore empowered to customize their children’s learning experiences. Advocates in South Carolina have called this an “unbundling” process. In this way, families can meet the unique needs of their students. Yet some legislators are balking at this feature of the scholarships despite having supported the language last year.
State Superintendent Ellen Weaver has defended the scholarship trust fund, and her office’s general counsel even gave lawmakers a memo explaining that the provisions in the law “clearly contemplates and authorizes students to ‘unbundle.’”
Parent demand for education savings accounts is surging around the country. In Texas, state officials have received 118,000 applications for education savings accounts this year. In Tennessee, the state Education Department has received more than 56,000 applications. Alabama officials received some 36,900 applications.
Across 17 states, every child can apply for an education savings account, no matter color or creed or ZIP code or their family’s tax bracket.
Students participating in South …
Law enforcement shouldn't be political.
Why do South Carolina lawmakers want to make it more difficult for families to educate their children? Lawmakers are misinterpreting the very law they approved just last year that creates more learning opportunities, and now the state is on the brink of becoming one of the least family-friendly locales in the southeast. Fortunately, other state officials are pushing back.
State Rep. Neal Collins, who was endorsed by the state teachers union, misidentifies South Carolina’s Education Scholarship Trust Fund as a “voucher” program and told local media that the ESTF does not expand education choices in the state. Still other lawmakers are trying to remove students who are customizing their learning experience while using the scholarships.
In fact, state lawmakers overcame union opposition to support parents and create the scholarships—twice, actually, recreating the scholarship trust fund in 2025 after a state supreme court ruling forced nearly 1,000 children to leave the program a year earlier.
Surveys of South Carolinians find strong support for scholarships like the trust fund, with 75% of parents of K-12 students in favor. Charitable donations and work by the Palmetto Promise Institute allowed students to remain at the schools they chose until lawmakers updated and approved the options in 2025.
Now, however, Collins and other lawmakers are saying families should have fewer choices under the law. The scholarships are not vouchers but are similar to education savings accounts. With a voucher, the state provides parents with funds to pay private school tuition costs. With education savings accounts, as adopted by South Carolina’s regional neighbors in Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, and more than a dozen other states around the country, state officials deposit a portion of a child’s spending from the education formula into a private account that parents use to buy education products and services.
Families can pay for personal tutors, online classes, private school tuition, and more, and even save money from year to year to prepare for high school tuition or college expenses.
Parents are therefore empowered to customize their children’s learning experiences. Advocates in South Carolina have called this an “unbundling” process. In this way, families can meet the unique needs of their students. Yet some legislators are balking at this feature of the scholarships despite having supported the language last year.
State Superintendent Ellen Weaver has defended the scholarship trust fund, and her office’s general counsel even gave lawmakers a memo explaining that the provisions in the law “clearly contemplates and authorizes students to ‘unbundle.’”
Parent demand for education savings accounts is surging around the country. In Texas, state officials have received 118,000 applications for education savings accounts this year. In Tennessee, the state Education Department has received more than 56,000 applications. Alabama officials received some 36,900 applications.
Across 17 states, every child can apply for an education savings account, no matter color or creed or ZIP code or their family’s tax bracket.
Students participating in South …
SC Lawmakers Seem to Be Allergic to Educational Opportunity
Law enforcement shouldn't be political.
Why do South Carolina lawmakers want to make it more difficult for families to educate their children? Lawmakers are misinterpreting the very law they approved just last year that creates more learning opportunities, and now the state is on the brink of becoming one of the least family-friendly locales in the southeast. Fortunately, other state officials are pushing back.
State Rep. Neal Collins, who was endorsed by the state teachers union, misidentifies South Carolina’s Education Scholarship Trust Fund as a “voucher” program and told local media that the ESTF does not expand education choices in the state. Still other lawmakers are trying to remove students who are customizing their learning experience while using the scholarships.
In fact, state lawmakers overcame union opposition to support parents and create the scholarships—twice, actually, recreating the scholarship trust fund in 2025 after a state supreme court ruling forced nearly 1,000 children to leave the program a year earlier.
Surveys of South Carolinians find strong support for scholarships like the trust fund, with 75% of parents of K-12 students in favor. Charitable donations and work by the Palmetto Promise Institute allowed students to remain at the schools they chose until lawmakers updated and approved the options in 2025.
Now, however, Collins and other lawmakers are saying families should have fewer choices under the law. The scholarships are not vouchers but are similar to education savings accounts. With a voucher, the state provides parents with funds to pay private school tuition costs. With education savings accounts, as adopted by South Carolina’s regional neighbors in Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, and more than a dozen other states around the country, state officials deposit a portion of a child’s spending from the education formula into a private account that parents use to buy education products and services.
Families can pay for personal tutors, online classes, private school tuition, and more, and even save money from year to year to prepare for high school tuition or college expenses.
Parents are therefore empowered to customize their children’s learning experiences. Advocates in South Carolina have called this an “unbundling” process. In this way, families can meet the unique needs of their students. Yet some legislators are balking at this feature of the scholarships despite having supported the language last year.
State Superintendent Ellen Weaver has defended the scholarship trust fund, and her office’s general counsel even gave lawmakers a memo explaining that the provisions in the law “clearly contemplates and authorizes students to ‘unbundle.’”
Parent demand for education savings accounts is surging around the country. In Texas, state officials have received 118,000 applications for education savings accounts this year. In Tennessee, the state Education Department has received more than 56,000 applications. Alabama officials received some 36,900 applications.
Across 17 states, every child can apply for an education savings account, no matter color or creed or ZIP code or their family’s tax bracket.
Students participating in South …
