REAL ACCOUNTABILITY AT WORK IN LIMITED MARKET-BASED PROGRAM
Hundreds of special needs students in South Carolina are benefiting from a new scholarship program – and while it remains frustratingly small for hard core school choice supporters like us, it’s a start.
And it’s off to a good start …
The Palmetto State is home to a small, well-regulated parental choice program that provides tax credit funded scholarships to students with special needs. This program has done an enormous amount of good for this particular student population, and is even earning high praise from skeptics of school choice for its transparency and self-regulation.
The program was celebrated at a workshop in Columbia this week – one held by Access Opportunity on the anniversary of Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman’s birthday.
At the meeting, Access Opportunity announced a new and improved “Best Practices Pledge” – yet another move by the group to provide the public with information about the Scholarship Funding Organizations (or “SFOs”) that form the heart of the new choice program. These special charities can accept tax credit funded donations, and must expend ninety-five percent of their revenues in the form of special education scholarships.
All SFOs that sign the “Best Practices Pledge” agree never to accept donations from parents or guardians of children seeking scholarships. While the proviso that authorizes the Educational Credits for Exceptional Needs Children (ECENC) already forbids SFO donors from designating a specific student or school as a beneficiary of their gift, the commitment to entirely rule out any possibility of a quid pro quo voluntarily sets the bar even higher. It also provides a smart defense against efforts by opponents of the program who seek to eliminate individual income tax component entirely. Families who apply for scholarships from one charity remain free to donate to any of the other authorized SFOs.
This site has consistently, and unapologetically, advocated for parental tax credits to help all families make decisions for their own sons’ and daughters’ education. However, the existing special needs SFO program is not designed to be a universal parental credit, so it makes sense to ensure it doesn’t devolve into one.
The pledge also includes commitments to publicize details of the SFOs’ scholarship awarding process, the criteria for making those decisions, and the speedy release of details of the SFO financial operations (rather than waiting months through the release of state mandated audits and federal tax reporting).
That’s real accountability, people …
Not all the SFOs have signed on, and Access won’t comment on the specifics – though details of who has signed are posted on their website. That’s the brilliance of the program and the work of Access Opportunity: rather than relying on big government to micromanage and over-regulate the budding program, potential donors can make educated choices among several distinct SFOs, just as the families seeking the best special ed instruction can choose among the participating independent schools.
It’s the marketplace at work, in other words.
That marketplace is directly responsible for hundreds of disabled children attending the specialized private school of their families’ choice, scores of credentialed and unique independent schools answering directly to parents, and distinct options for donors and self-policing by program advocates and participants.
It’s refreshing to see South Carolina doing something right for a group of children who need – and deserve – it. Now it’s time to expand that success throughout the entire academic marketplace in South Carolina … something it’s clear huge majorities of South Carolinians support.
You can learn more about the SFOs, and all the schools across South Carolina that serve special needs students, at Access’ site, IndependentED.org.
28 comments
Tax scam!!
Exactly!
Those special needs parents……scammers, the lot of them.
The whole concept is a scam. The goal is to get money from the taxpayers. The whole concept is stupid. If the state wants to award scholarships, they should do so. Not let some private entity that encourage people to give money so they can get a scholarship. The state could dole out the money on a first come first serve demonstrated need basis. Not some basis made up by a guy making money from fund raising. I.E. give me money and I will take a cut and get the taxpayers to give you money.
There should be no private charities at all, really. The state could carry out …well, everything… with so much more efficiency and success.
Political Action Committees… they should be given the chance to show how efficient private organizations can be.
Scam? What is wrong with helping LEGAL AMERICAN CHILDREN, with special needs ,get a edumacation?
The public schools have brainwashed another generation of our children and school vouchers are the only way out of this mess.
If this money was for free abortions you libs/rinos/soc would be all for it.
Sandi, The above is dead on except for one thing. I used to be for vouchers. Have written in favor of them for years. A friend recently reminded me of an old rule. “If the govt pays for it , the govt. can control it. Better a tax rebate patterned after the earned income tax credit. You present the bill to the tax man and get back whatever percentage with no strings attached. Same end result but with no govt. Much better deal. BTW, keep up the good work, there aren’t many conservatives on this rag, we need to stick together.
Thank you sir. I always enjoy your comments.
So, Sandi, why do the majority Republicans not participate in the school system more? Seriously. Elect conservative school boards, who could then promote conservative principals, and they in turn would hire conservative teachers. Why hasn’t this happened?
‘truthmonger’. I don’t agree that a ‘majority’ of Republicans don’t participate in the school system anymore. Do you have proof of that?
The NEA and FTA has made it impossible to hire enough conservative teachers for public schools because of their mandated standards. The universities are required to brainwash potential teachers to be socialists.
Principals have to adhere to the liberal teaching unions and can’t hire conservative teachers.
…and where does it work this way, other than in your mind? See debunking of Campbell Brown’s Colbert debacle.
Yea, whatever you say.
http://www.islandpacket.com/2014/05/10/3104318/exclusive-sc-parents-pressured.html
Or this: http://www.thestate.com/2014/07/22/3578079/scoppe-who-says-charity-is-its.html?sp=/99/168/143/
Is the Ronald Jefferson Davis Jr. (aka Jeff Davis) behind Palmetto Kids First SFO, the same one entangled in Atlanta’s “Georgian Bank” entering FDIC receivership?
Good companion piece here: http://scdigest.blogspot.com/2014/07/are-bureaucrats-attempting-coup-to.html
GT, you have a companion?
Jack Black, Johnny Walker, Jim Beam, and his Old Grandad.
The word on his street is that GT’s companion is a Raggedy Ann doll, and that he personally makes her outfits. He prefers to use the 1940 McCall’s Pattern #820 because it comes with a cape pattern. The gossip is that used patterns for ‘night out’ and ‘bedtime’ outfits have been found in his trash.
TMI, Shifty, TMI. Scares me to think you go through GT’s garbage….
DT hurt his ass in a car accident, and collected for loss of consortium, so I guess he does.
Turkey-neck Davis showing off, getting his picture in the papers again. Too bad he’s a whore, voting to elect Jean Toal as Supreme Court Chief Justice.
Who wrote this for you? You seem to usually attribute when you are publishing a press release.
nitrat,
I think he has an “editor” – he writes his piginglish screeds in a drunken stupor, and in the morning, his flunky cleans it up, adds a few collegiate adjectives, introduces some journalistic-looking sentence structures, and links to previous articles.
If he’s still passed out when the editing is complete, it gets posted as-is, otherwise, it’s mangled further and run through a spelling checker (that misses tense and number, misuse of metaphor, and changes misspelled words to their nearest and most humorous look or sound alike), and posted without another edit.
Tomorrow is the 1st day of August and Ms. Sic is wanting to know where the mortgage money is going to come from. So old Sic Willie had to get something out about his voucher scam so that maybe Howie will send him a few dollars to help get Ms. Sic off Sic’s back.
VOUCHERS!
Give the rich and the bachelors a break!
Haven’t the rich suffered enough?
Let the churches teach and heal!
Our Funding Editor always says vouchers, no matter what you call them or how you “dress up the pig” to fool people, do nothing to help those who need help the most.
She has also pointed out that voucher plans are all scams, and the new twisted tax credit plans as just do-overs of the voucher scam.
But, she missed something. She missed how effective the new tax credit scam is at robbing from the poor and stealing revenue from the taxpaying public.
Read about it here:
http://www.thestate.com/2014/07/22/3578079/scoppe-who-says-charity-is-its.html
Read about how the tax credit scam really works here:
http://www.thestate.com/2014/05/10/3439435/exclusive-sc-parents-pressured.html
Howie the Voucher Clown has been buying votes for his scam in the S.C. Legislature for years.
Thankfully, the honest and responsible Legislators and voters have long recognized what a scam it is.
Vouchers and the so-called education tax credits are all scams. In the words of a former Midlands elected official: Vouchers are dead in S.C.
And, soon the tax credit scams will be, too.
BIN News Editorial Staff
Flair and Balanced
Tax credit funded scholarships. Hmmm. First you get the tax deduction on your Federal return, which in turn makes your Adjusted Gross Income lower for Fed and State return, then you get a tax CREDIT from the state on that already reduced Adjusted Gross Income. What terrific welfare for parents who want their kids to go to private schools. Fantastic Return on Investment on this. And it’s framed to look and smell so honorable too. Of course it’s legal, but then so is buying a company in Ireland so you corporation can claim to be Irish and avoid US taxes. Same category of “legal”.