A young boy walks down a hallway at Carter Traditional Elementary School in Louisville, Ky. Kentucky is one of three states with school choice questions on the ballot this fall. (File/Jon Cherry/Getty Images)
COLUMBIA — A South Carolina philanthropist’s donation will help cover more of the private school tuition for some students who lost their taxpayer-funded scholarships following a state Supreme Court ruling.
Ravenel B. Curry III, co-founder of a financial planning firm, donated $500,000 to pay tuition for roughly half of the 700 students enrolled in private schools under the state’s voucher program, allowing those students to stay in their schools for the next quarter, according to the Palmetto Promise Institute.
“We are honored and profoundly grateful for Ravenel Curry’s generous gift,” Palmetto Promise Institute CEO Wendy Damron said in a news release.
Gov. Henry McMaster last year signed the law establishing so-called education scholarship accounts, providing up to $6,000 a year in public funds to pay for tuition, transportation, supplies or technology at either private schools or public schools outside a student’s district.
Then in September, the state Supreme Court declared the payments unconstitutional due to a ban on public money directly benefiting private education.
By that point, the state had already deposited one of four planned $1,500 installments into parents’ accounts. While the court did not require schools to pay back that money, it did halt payments, leaving families scrambling to keep from having to transfer their children back to public school.
The money was available only to Medicaid-eligible students this year. If the Supreme Court had allowed the program to continue, elgibility would have expanded in coming years.
The Palmetto Promise Institute, which for years had pushed for the law, stepped in with fundraising support.
This latest donation from Curry follows a $900,000 donation last month from Jeff Yass, a Pennsylvania billionaire who co-founded a global investment firm. That money helped keep students in their chosen schools until the end of the semester, the Palmetto Promise Institute said. Whether the conservative think tank will be able to raise the money to cover tuition for the remaining students, or for all students during their final quarter of school, remains to be seen.
“This contribution is not just a gift to these families,” Damron said. “It’s an investment in the long-term health of South Carolina’s school choice movement and a powerful example of the impact individuals can make to keep this issue at the forefront of public policy.”
The money will go directly to schools, not to parents, said the Palmetto Promise Institute.
The Catholic diocese for South Carolina also has been raising money to keep 195 students who lost their school vouchers in the group’s 32 schools.
Republican leaders in the state House have cited school choice as a priority for the coming legislative session starting in January. The state’s high court allowed the program to continue paying for other education-related uses, such as tutoring and textbooks, but tuition was a major aspect.
Billionaire donor covering K-12 private tuition after SC court rejected vouchers
Legislators could try to pass a new law in the hopes that a court with a different makeup gives a different decision. Or, they could pose the question to voters.
Opponents of the program have called on legislators to find other ways to improve the state’s education system instead of continued attempts to pass school choice laws.
“I just wish in South Carolina we could focus on our public institutions,” Sherry East, president of the South Carolina Education Association, said previously. “I wish we’d stop attacking them and work on making them stronger.”