Staff reports | Gov. Henry McMaster signed a bill into law Thursday that would eventually allow up to 15,000 students in the state to use public money for private schools, capping a 20-year Republican effort that will reduce money for public education.
“I pushed the notion that parents ought to the the drivers of their education – that education shouldn’t be divided up over who lives in the best ZIP code and who doesn’t,” Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Berkeley, said in an Associated Press story.
Vouchers, called “education scholarship accounts” will be available next fall to allow parents and guardians to get up to $6,000 a year in public money to pay for tuition, transportation, supplies or technology at private schools or public schools outside of their district. When fully implemented, the measure is expected to cost the stat up to $90 million a year.
In other recent headlines:
Senate sends bill to governor on lethal injections. The S.C. Senate sent a bill to Gov. Henry McMaster’s desk May 4 that would expand the state’s so-called “shield law” by granting secrecy to the suppliers of the lethal drugs used in executions.
Carolina Squat bill heads to governor. A popular vehicle modification that’s seen across the Grand Strand and Pee Dee, known at the Carolina Squat, is closer to being banned in the state, heading now to McMaster’s desk to be signed into law.
Former governor triumphantly returns to Statehouse. Former S.C. Gov. David Beasley, fresh off a stint as head of the U.N. World Food Program where he helped to raise $55 billion to fight hunger, told state legislators that he took South Carolina values across the world to help people. And in a triumphant address to lawmakers, he pushed hope.
Charleston is coronation celebration site for King Charles III. The City of Charleston is hosting a special Saturday celebration to mark the coronation of the United Kingdom’s King Charles III and the Queen Consort, a ceremony that has been decades in the planning and replanning. The celebration, announced Thursday as the official Southeastern observance, will be held at the Old Exchange Building, 122 East Bay St., with Rachel Galloway, British consul general to the Southeastern United States.
Tickets for IAAM opening week now available. Reservations can be made ahead of the International African American Museum’s June 27 opening through the IAAM’s website. General admission tickets are set at $19.95 with discounted youth (age 6-16), senior (62+) and military tickets available for $9.95.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!
Thanks for the summation on legislative activity. It would be helpful to publish links of where to find who voted for/against which bills…since your circulation is greater than the General Assembly’s website showing voting activity.