Anthony, Allison, Brown speak on the voucher bill

Note: Following is an encapsulation of remarks made by legislators during today's debate. While this note does reflect remarks made by these lawmakers, it is not a full and verbatim transcript of the remarks.

Rep. Mike Anthony: Where is the superintendent who represents 700,000 children in this state?

I said as a freshman, One of these days, you're going to awaken the sleeping giant of this state -- the teachers of this state. When the message gets to them and they understand it -- you sit back and laugh because teachers don't vote -- when that happens, you won't see this kind of stuff.

I want to apologize to my delegation in Spartanburg who got those nasty report cards over this.

Every parent has one opportunity to educate your child. Does that mean you have to be for choice? No, but it means every time I saw parents engaged in their child's education, they got it. Parents have to be engaged.

I don't like that "minimally-adequate" requirement we got back from the courts.

The people who run the schools now are adjudicators -- the judges, litigators -- the lawyers -- and legislators.

This is going to weaken the General Fund budget, because this process has been fought for by mean-spirited people. To my colleagues in Spartanburg, I can't imagine you voting for this, the way they treated you.

Wait 'til next year. What are they going to bring back next year?

How can we throw away $37 million to appease 65,000 when we can't fund the 700,000 who have chosen public schools? This is just tossing water in their faces.

Remember what I said: One of these days, we're going to awaken the sleeping giant.

Rep. Rita Allison: I have a few things to share before you go home.

I stand here... conflicted. I am, over how we got here.

I've been in the General Assembly for a number of years, and through the Governor's office, and throughout that time I know parents who wanted parental choice, parents who cared and who wanted parental choice.

Then there was the other side, parents who were scared there wouldn't be enough money to fund public education.

This bill is not a silver bullet to determine whether public education is funded.

I think so much of Mr. Anthony. In his heart, he puts the child in the center of everything. That's what we have to do. We have public schools I would put up against any in the nation. But we also have weak links. We are as strong as those weak links, public and private. They have to be brought up.

We have to have the will to do what we haven't had the will to do. We took up tax reform without any education funding in it. We have to stop and think about what we're doing. We have to be able to do for the teachers the things they need to teach every day, and parents have to be involved.

This is not the silver bullet. We'll have to do our job to support public education in our state and keep it going.

I want to thank you for the civility in this body today. There hasn't been that civility on the journey to this. We should not be pitting education against education in this state; it should be the best thing to happen to any child in this state, private or public.

I hope we've learned a lesson through this journey we've taken on choice. It's not about drawing a line in the sand and becoming an obstructionist and threatening people because they have a feel about something. It's about allowing people to come together at a table.

Rep. Boyd Brown: Obviously I'm against the bill. I went to private school in Fairfield County; those are not the best public schools in the state, but we're trying to make them better.

By taking children out of those schools and putting them in a segregated private school is not the answer. It weakens our public education system.

It's a vehicle, so they can come back next year and chip away some more, the guys who work for Howard Rich. They're going to find a way to keep getting paid by Howard Rich.

I have two main problems. One is the way that group conducts business. We've an honorable county delegation targeted, a member from the Low Country blasted on a blog because she stood up for what her constituents want.

What you're saying with this bill is that this IS the way to get things done. When it comes to school choice, that's what it took to get this passed. All it took was legally being on the take from Howard Rich.

Arthur Ravenel said, If you can't take their money and vote against them, you have no business being in politics in the first place.

Instead of voting on the interests of Howard Rich, you need to vote in the interests of your constituents.

They picked off people like Keith Kelly, an honorable man, and that's they way they got things done.

Second is what it actually does to public education. On most Friday nights, like many of you, I'm at a football game. These public schools have always been, and despite Howard Rich, the backbone of our communities. We don't gather in church; it's still pretty segregated. It's now the football stands, the basketball arena.

We're incentivizing parents to take their children out of public schools, and keep them home, and fracture our communities more than they're fractured now. In encourage all of you to vote against it.

Brown reports on session, thanks teachers for calling

In an column published in the Herald Independent, Rep. Boyd Brown offers his perspectives on Governor Nikki Haley's recent vetoes of funding for public schools, South Carolina Educational Television and other state services, as well as his thoughts on the "privilege" of voting to override those vetoes.

Also in the time since my last Update, the Governor vetoed 34 items in the state budget, including, but not limited to: law enforcement, economic development, K-12 education, the arts, agricultural research, conservation, S.C. Educational Television and rural health care. Out of those 34 vetoes, the S.C. House of Representatives overrode 27 of them.

While the Governor touted her vetoes as budget-balancing proposals, we passed a balanced budget, per state law, which funds all of those programs. Also, it should be noted that in all, the Governor’s vetoes amounted to a small amount of the State Budget, and were political maneuvers, shunned by even the Republican-controlled Legislature. In essence, her cuts would have been equivalent to taking half a pepperoni off of a large pizza.

With that said, it was a privilege to override her vetoes, which blatantly targeted rural areas such as Fairfield County. She tried to cut rural health, which would have reduced the number of primary care physicians in places like Ridgeway and Jenkinsville.

Then she tried to cut S.C. ETV, which does much more than just broadcast, as she put it, “Big Bird.” ETV trains law enforcement officials to use a statewide alert system like the Amber Alert, it broadcasts the General Assembly while we’re in session, keeping us transparent, and it uses its satellite system to go into schools and provide educational programs to students. We’re lucky to have this program, touted year after year as one of the best public broadcast systems in the United States.

While she was at it, she cut agricultural research, which would have eliminated the Clemson Extension Service. She tried to strip money from the Department of Commerce, the agency that recruits jobs to South Carolina, and is headed up by Fairfield’s own, Secretary Bobby Hitt.

Honestly folks, I was blown away by the Governor’s idea of governing. We had cut the fat out of the budget, we have watched state agencies layoff hundreds upon hundreds of workers, and the Governor wanted us to eliminate entire programs, even though we had written a balanced budget. It was unbelievable.

I would also like to thank those who have emailed or phoned me in regards to the budget vetoes. Whether you’re a librarian supporting ETV, a Trooper supporting law enforcement, a teacher supporting K-12 education or a farmer supporting Clemson Extension, the Statehouse heard you loud and clear! It was your persistence that beat back these cuts to your essential programs.

Here's one lawmaker who appreciates hearing from educators.

Educators, let's welcome and accept Brown's invitation to share our views on state priorities.