A new budget deal made by South Carolina lawmakers protects homeschooling families’ ability to participate in the state’s private school choice program, the Education Scholarship Trust Fund.
Lawmakers throughout the legislative session had debated potentially limiting funding for the state’s school choice program to prevent additional families from participating. The 10,000 children enrolled in the program during the most recent school year account for less than 2 percent of public school students in the state. Republicans hold a supermajority in both chambers of the state legislature.
At issue for some legislative leaders was that state education superintendent Ellen Weaver had allowed homeschool families to participate in the program for eligible education expenses, including microschools. Many South Carolina microschools opt to serve children of families who adhere to the state’s three categories of homeschool requirements, called “unbundlers.” Some lawmakers expressed concern this was outside the spirit of the program as they understood it when they cast their votes to support it.
This term "unbundling" really can be seen as describing the true spirit in which education savings accounts (ESAs) intended, as scholar Dan Lips first described in a 2005 policy paper published by the Goldwater Institute.
The ESA as a contemporary iteration of school choice permits participating families the ability to use program dollars to curate a personalized education approach for their children, which might include individual classes, programs or other eligible components rather than requiring families to simply choose one school of choice to meet all of their children’s educational needs.
“This is a huge win for educational freedom for families,” Ryan Dellinger, Director of Education Policy for the Palmetto Policy Institute. “‘Unbundling’ necessarily breaks the standard educational model and gives families complete control over their child’s education. There is no “one size fits all” solution for education, and “unbundling” ensures that families are able to access the environments, services, and model that works best for their children.”
You can read a full analysis here courtesy of the Palmetto Promise Institute.
Photo: South Carolina Capital Building from Wikimedia Commons