SC school choice advocates hope to expand offerings
School choice advocates celebrated their successes Wednesday with a eye on further expanding offerings outside of traditional instruction across South Carolina.
“School choice makes every day better for the students whose lives it changes, and we want to show our whole state the difference it can make,” Palmetto Promise Institute president Ellen Weaver said prior to a rally at The Township.
Slightly more than 1 in 4 South Carolina students today are in nontraditional instruction in public, magnet, charter and private schools as well as online academies and homeschooling, state education officials say.
Parents and teachers hope for more federal and state attention and aid for such instruction.
“It’s a part of liberty to decide how to educate your child,” said Robert Powell of the West Columbia area. “It would be nice to get some money to help out.”
His family spends $12,000 a year for two teenagers to attend a church-affiliated school in Lexington, a choice he said instills values through an approach that is “more biblical than secular.”
Critics in the Legislature say giving state money to private initiatives would take money from public schools.
But veteran mathematics teacher Bernice White, a faculty member at a Columbia charter school, says innovation that increases academic performance occurs more often in nontraditional settings.
“It’s a different approach to learning that more students respond to,” she said. “It brings a new spin to education.”
About 2,900 students from 45 schools as well as others taught through home schooling and online academies attended the rally, organizers said.
State Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman told the gathering it’s vital to offer an array of academic choices to ensure “a good fit” for children with varying interests and backgrounds.
The rally mixing speeches with student-led song and dance was one of 306 events celebrating school choice across South Carolina this week, organizers say. Others include information sessions, open houses, rallies, and movie screenings.
Weaver heads a conservative think tank with ties to former U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint and other Republicans.
Other rally sponsors included the South Carolina Public Charter School Alliance, Public School Options, and the South Carolina Catholic Conference.
Tim Flach: 803-771-8483
By the numbers
About 235,000 of 838,000 students in South Carolina – slightly more than 1 in 4 – are in nontraditional classrooms, officials at Palmetto Promise Institute say.
Their count includes pupils in charter schools, private and public magnet instruction, online academies, homeschooling and private schools.
This story was originally published January 25, 2017 at 1:38 PM with the headline "SC school choice advocates hope to expand offerings."