News

Rex renews push for public school choice with legislation filed in House, Senate

March 24, 2009

Companion bills were filed today in the House and Senate aimed at increasing the number and variety of choices available to students and their families.

State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex, who has made public school choice a cornerstone of his administration, said he believes the legislation has broad bipartisan support. 

“A number of school districts have pushed ahead with this idea on their own with remarkable success,” Rex said.  “That’s because most educators are committed to the idea that public schools can provide the services that parents want.  This legislation would make certain that every school district offers options.”

The House bill is co-sponsored by Republicans Ted Pitts and Gene Pinson and Democrat Anton Gunn.  The Senate bill is co-sponsored by Republicans Wes Hayes and John Courson and Democrats Gerald Malloy and John Scott.  Both would create public school choice committees in the state’s local school districts and require that they create new instructional choices at the elementary, middle and high school levels within two years.

Unlike similar legislation passed in 2007 by bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate ��" but vetoed by Governor Mark Sanford ��" the revised legislation would not mandate transfers between school districts.  Instead, each district’s public school choice committee would adopt a proposal for at least one cross-district choice within three years and present that proposal to its local school board.  Implementation would be at the discretion of local school boards.

Since Rex took office as State Superintendent, South Carolina has become the nation’s leader in single-gender education with nearly 220 schools offering that instructional option.  The catalyst for that explosion came when Rex created an Office of Public School Choice within his agency and hired a single-gender expert to help schools develop their programs.

Similar interest began building in Montessori programs soon after Rex hired an expert in that instructional strategy to help schools get started.  More than 30 public schools currently offer Montessori instruction, with at least five more schools scheduled to begin next fall.

Another staffer in the Education Department’s Office of Public School Choice helps organizations interested in creating charter schools.

“This is not a fad or a public relations stunt,” Rex said.  “It’s an idea whose time has come, and the Education Department’s role is to help school districts create choices.”

The State Superintendent emphasized that increasing the variety of public school choices doesn’t have to mean increasing the number of schools.  That’s because schools have discovered that they can offer multiple instructional options within the walls of their existing facilities.  Columbia’s Dent Middle School, for example, offers four distinct instructional options within a single school facility.

Choices are currently offered within magnet programs, schools-within-schools, alternative schools, virtual schools and charter schools. Some of the state’s public school choice programs currently include single-gender initiatives, middle college/early college, Montessori Education, evening high school, language immersion, academic academies, arts integration and international baccalaureate programs.

The two Rex-supported public school choice bills were introduced on the same day that a group of senators filed legislation that would subsidize private school tuitions with public funds.  Similar bills have been rejected by legislators since 2004.

“It’s hard to imagine this latest version getting any traction,” Rex said.  “South Carolinians will be stunned at the idea of spending millions in public funds to subsidize private school tuitions during a year when public school budgets have been cut by $387 million.  Do we really want to raise taxes to subsidize private school tuitions?

“I believe private schools are an important component in the menu of choices parents can choose from.  But public funds should go only to schools that are accessible to all kids and fully accountable to the public.  Our public school choice legislation will provide additional choices at hundreds of schools, and at no additional cost to taxpayers.”

Increasing choice within public schools is one of Rex’s five goals for making South Carolina “the most fairly funded, most innovative, and most choice-driven public school system in the United States.”  The other four goals are accelerating innovation, refining the state’s accountability system to ensure maximum results and minimum testing, elevating and reinvigorating the teaching profession, and providing fair and more equitable school funding.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009