School choice debate: Black support growing;
Poll finds 43 percent in survey favor private school scholarships
African-Americans may be showing growing support for school choice in South Carolina, a new opinion poll shows, particularly among those who are married and under age 50.
A survey of 1,000 registered black voters in South Carolina showed 43 percent of those surveyed think parents should be allowed to use state-funded scholarships to put their children in private schools if they feel the public school is not meeting their children's needs. Forty percent opposed such a plan.
A majority, 53 percent in the poll commissioned by school-choice advocates, said giving parents a tax credit or scholarship to choose the best school for their children - public or private - would improve the state's dismal high school graduation rate.
The survey is the latest wrinkle in South Carolina's continuing fight over education. The results left school choice supporters confident their cause is building momentum.
"I saw numbers that opened my eyes," said Larry Marchant, president of The Palmetto Policy Group, which designed the survey and has aggressively pushed the school-choice issue in the state. "I saw more support than even I thought was there."
Public school supporters were unimpressed.
The Rev. Joe Darby of Charleston, first vice-president of the state NAACP and a staunch public schools supporter, said the poll results were dubious at best.
"They got what they paid for," Darby said Wednesday. "What you have is a poll that reaches a preconceived result."
Put Parents in Charge, a pro-school choice foundation based in Virginia, paid for the phone survey, which was conducted by Pulse Opinion Research between April 8-11.
The national group, which declined to disclose the cost of the survey, accepts funding from such sources as New York real estate mogul Howard Rich, and does polling and advocacy work on school choice.
Rich has given thousands of dollars in political donations in South Carolina over the past eight years in support of efforts to spend public money to pay for private school.
African-Americans have become targets in the fight over school choice in South Carolina, with most black lawmakers opposed to a plan they say siphons money from public schools.
Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston and a candidate for governor, stepped publicly into the S.C. school-choice fight last month. He introduced a Senate bill that allows tax credits for parents who want to move their children from a public school to a private one, or to a different public school. The measure also provides a tax credit to those who home school, and state scholarships for lower income families who want to move their children from schools labeled as failing.
"Nobody wants to send their children to a failing school," Ford said. "We created this when we started putting grades on schools, and we have got to fix it."
Ford, who has taken heavy criticism from his black General Assembly colleagues over his stance, and now says he feels vindicated by the poll results, said tax credits are the only way to correct the school problem.
Meanwhile Darby, in addition to his questions about the poll's veracity, said Ford has steadfastly refused to meet with his constituents to ask what they think about Ford's legislation. He thinks the idea will get a different reception.
The poll results came 24 hours before the S.C. Senate is set to hear public testimony today on two bills pertaining to public and private school choice. The sides disagree on the bill's financial impact:
School-choice proponents claim the bill would save the state school system as much as $400 million by reducing the number of public school students.
Opponents say the bill would cost public education, which has been cut by $397 million this year, at least $150 million before the first student leaves public schools. Paying for the 55,000 students, who would qualify for at least a $2,400 tax credit, would cost that much.
Sen. John Courson, R-Richland, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said more than 50 participants are signed up to speak on the school-choice legislation, which is a subject he said the state Senate has never debated.
Courson said the committee will not vote on the legislation today, and he doubts the legislation will go anywhere, due mainly to the late filing of the bill, and a condensed business calendar for the remainder of the session.
Reach Burris at (803) 771-8398.