Dear Editor,

Last week hundreds of people gathered at the Statehouse complex, but this time it was not to protest taxes, bailouts or stimulus money.

Instead, a crowd of parents, students and educators packed out the halls and hearing rooms of the Gressette Building to make one message clear to members of the K-12 Education Senate Subcommittee: Parents want real school choice for their children.

During the course of the two-hour hearing, parent after parent stepped forward to give personal testimonies about children being left behind in failing public schools, and how private and home school environments are able to providing them the education they need.

Often with tears in their eyes, parents of special needs students told senators about choosing to live in poverty to ensure their child had access to the kind of safe, quality education they were being denied in public schools.

Despite these moving personal testimonies about the lives and futures of children, members of South Carolina’s public education establishment stepped forward to categorically oppose any attempt to give these same parents educational options. Education officials, bureaucrats and political insiders-most drawing taxpayer funded salaries- were determined to, in their words, “end the distracting debate” about empowering parents.

South Carolina families deserve better. Lawmakers must be willing to acknowledging that parents have the fundamental right to choose the most appropriate education for their own child. Real improvement to the state’s education system begins with engaged parents.

States like Florida, Pennsylvania and Arizona have set up school choice programs to give parents options. These programs—and the thousands of students in them—are thriving. In addition to boosting parental satisfaction, school choice is saving other states millions of dollars a year. Much of the funding for individual students remains in public schools, even if a student takes advantage of school choice to leave.

The facts make it plain that school choice works, but most importantly, state lawmakers must recognize that this is something their constituents really desire. On two occasions, thousands of parents have rallied for school choice at the Statehouse, and many more have voiced their support by calling or writing their legislators.

It is past time for members of the General Assembly to step forward and pass the school choice legislation that families in their districts want and deserve.

Randy Page

President of South Carolinians for Responsible Government