Veto of school choice bill sustained

In a blow to State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex's reform plans, a bill providing for school choice options failed to garner enough votes in the House Thursday to override Gov. Mark Sanford's veto.

The House vote was 60-52 in favor of overturning the veto, but fell about 15 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to override.

But Rex said he remained hopeful late Thursday that lawmakers would reconsider their vote when they reconvene today.

"It's disappointing because this bill would guarantee additional public school choices for every child in South Carolina," Rex said. "But I'm hopeful that the House will vote to reconsider before the members go home. If we can get the bill out of the House, the Senate seems poised to override the governor's veto."

Rex's school choice proposal is dead for the year unless lawmakers take a second stab at overturning the veto. The choice plan called for adding numerous public school choice options, ranging from single-gender classes to Montessori schools to the transferring of students across district lines.

The public education community largely backed Rex's proposal, but opponents who push for tax tuition credits for private schools as part of any choice plan derided the plan for not going far enough.

In a letter to supporters, Sanford, who favors vouchers, said he vetoed the proposal because it failed to provide parents with choices in public and private schools.

Sanford's letter said the bill's passage "would represent a step backwards in the education reform movement in that it would create the illusion of reform where none would actually exist."

The bill called for a phased-in system of public school choice during a three-year period. In the first two years, school districts would adopt choice plans that included new options for students in all grade levels at existing schools. The third year, the most controversial, called for offering open public school enrollment statewide, allowing students to cross district lines and attend any school not already at or above capacity.

Rex said he heard inaccurate information Thursday as lawmakers discussed the plan's third year.

"All of the concerns seem to revolve around the third year of the three years," he said. "The intention is for the Legislature to have two years to strengthen the law and address the funding issues."

Rep. Ted Pitts, R-Lexington, said he remained concerned about funding the open enrollment plan. He said he voted to sustain the veto not because of tax tuition credits but because of funding issues that could arise in the plan's third year.

"I hate that it's become Dr. Rex versus Governor Sanford," Pitts said. "I'm not in that fight."

Some members of Rex's own party voted to sustain the veto. Rep. Joe Neal, D-Hopkins, said open enrollment could lead to re-segregated schools.

Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, said the program should be given a chance.

"If you don't have anything better to put on the table, sometimes you need to just trust," she said.