Senate debates bill to fund private school vouchers through SC Education Lottery

A bill to fund private school tuition scholarships through the SC Education Lottery became the first to be debated on the Senate floor of the 2025 session Wednesday. COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina lawmakers are debating how to fund a program that sends K-12 students to private schools with state money, following the state Supreme Court’s ruling that deemed the program unconstitutional. The court struck down the Education Scholarship Trust Fund Program, saying it’s unconstitutional for public money to go to private schools. Lawmakers set out to rewrite the bill, with Senate Education Committee Chairman Greg Hembree, R-Horry, proposing this latest version using the SC Education Lottery as funding. The lottery funds programs like Palmetto LIFE and HOPE scholarships. They argue it wouldn’t violate the constitution because it isn’t taxpayer dollars. Hembree says it’s urgent to get the bill passed quickly, as thousands of students are in limbo. Senators today pressed him on his choice to bypass the normal committee hearings and public testimony on the bill and take it up on the Senate floor, saying it's pushing the bill through too fast. "If we didn’t have kids out there in no man’s land, I would agree...I would say there’s no urgency on this. We can do this in the cool of the day, we can have all the committee hearings." The bill would provide students with thousands of dollars per year to attend private schools, expanding the previous program over the next two years. By the fall of 2026, up to 15,000 students could receive nearly $9,000 annually. Families earning up to 600% of the federal poverty level would qualify, meaning the program could allocate up to $131 million annually by that time. Critics argue the program doesn’t address public education, and remains unconstitutional. “If we’re going to talk about public education from the perspective of making improvements, I’m all about it," said Sen. Russell Ott, D-Calhoun, Lexington, and Richland. "But I see nothing in this legislation that speaks to helping public ed. This speaks to helping, and we’ll get into the constitutionality of it, if we would like, but helping kids leave public education and only a select few, But Hembree argues the program benefits schools indirectly. “Whatever the reason that family decides that they want to move their child from traditional K-12 to another choice, the local money stays with the local school district,” Hembree said. As for the lottery funds, senators suggested transferring that money into the state’s general fund as part of the broader budget. The debate over the bill will likely continue into Thursday.