Private school voucher advocates lost another round in the S.C. Supreme Court Wednesday, with a majority of the justices finding that the state’s controversial new scholarship program is unconstitutional.
The 3-2 ruling, which found the justices at odds over the law and the facts in the case, marked the second time the state’s highest court has struck down a private school scholarship program since 2020. Under Wednesday’s ruling, parents can continue to use scholarship dollars to pay for other educational expenses, such as computers and private tutoring.
“After we clear away the window dressing, we can see the act funnels public funds to the direct benefit of private schools,” freshman Associate Justice Gary Hill wrote on behalf of the majority. “This is what our [state] constitution forbids.”
Though the ruling’s full impact was not immediately clear, S.C. Department of Education officials told the City Paper that funds already received by families would not be affected. In a separate statement, state Superintendentof Education Ellen Weaver, a longtime supporter of private school vouchers, said she would “respectfully disagree” with the court’s decision.
“Families cried tears of joy when the scholarship funds became available for their children, and today’s Supreme Court ruling brings those same families tears of devastation,” Weaver said. “These students deserve better, and I will not rest until they get it.”
But plaintiffs in the case, including S.C. Education Association President Sherry East, said the ruling was an important victory for the more than 750,000 Palmetto State families who rely on public schools to educate their children.
“We are very grateful that the courts ruled in our favor and that public dollars will remain in public schools,” East told the City Paper. “I just wish the state had put all this on hold until the Supreme Court made its decision.”
In a statement, Gov. Henry McMaster expressed disappointment with the ruling, but vowed to press on.
“The Supreme Court’s decision may have devastating consequences for thousands of low-income families who relied on these scholarships for their child’s enrollment in school last month,” McMaster said. “We will request the Court to expeditiously reconsider this decision.”
S.C. Supreme Court denies Owens’s final death penalty appeal
The state of South Carolina will execute convicted killer Freddie Owens on Sept. 18, barring a last-minute grant of clemency by Gov. Henry McMaster. Meanwhile, death penalty advocates are asking for mercy, which South Carolina governors typically have not granted.
That’s the upshot of a Thursday S.C. Supreme Court order denying Owens’ 11th-hour request for a stay of execution based on new evidence that prosecutors cut a secret deal to secure the testimony of a key witness against him. In addition, Owens’s attorneys argued his jury may have been improperly swayed by the sight of special security precautions taken during his trial.
Owens was convicted and sentenced to death in 1999 for the 1997 murder of Greenville convenience store clerk Irene Graves.
“Owens has failed to meet his burden of showing a constitutional violation that…constitutes a denial of fundamental fairness,” the justices wrote. “We, therefore, deny the petition for a writ of habeas corpus and deny the motions for a stay of execution.”
With the clock ticking down, state religious leaders and anti-death penalty activists are calling on McMaster to spare Owens’s life by commuting his sentence to life without parole.
“The governor has the authority to save the life of a South Carolinian, and we call on him to use that authority now,” ACLU-SC Executive Director Jace Woodrum said in a statement. “Killing human beings in a death chamber does not deliver justice, it does not make us safe, and it has no place under our Constitution.”
A petition asking McMaster to grant clemency in the case had almost 3,000 signatures as of September 13.
If Owen’s death sentence by lethal injection is carried out, he will be the first person executed in South Carolina since 2011.
S.C. awarded almost $1 million to aid sexual assault survivors
The S.C. Department of Public Health (DPH) will have $925,389 in additional funds to support victims of sexual assault thanks to a new grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.
DPH says the money will be used to provide high-quality sexual violence services in the state’s 15 rape crisis centers over the next two years.
“Supporting rape crisis centers is essential not only for the immediate and long-term care of survivors but also for cultivating a community that recognizes, addresses and strives to prevent sexual violence,” DPH official Danielle Wingo said in a statement. “It is a privilege to collaborate with and advocate for these organizations.”
According to DPH, more than 2,500 South Carolinians reported a sexual assault in 2021. However, experts like S.C. Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Executive Director Sara Barber say the actual number is much higher due to underreporting.
“Almost 30% of women in South Carolina are raped during their lifetime, with over 50% estimated to experience some form of sexual violence,” Barber said. “This funding is critical to sustaining the services provided by rape crisis centers in communities across our state that provide hope, healing and a pathway to wellbeing for survivors of these devastating intimate assaults.”
DPH advises victims in need of assistance to contact the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or a rape crisis center in their area.
In other recent news
Wilson hospitalized with stroke-like symptoms. Midlands U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson,77, was hospitalized Tuesday after experiencing “stroke-like” symptoms, according to his son, S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson. On Thursday, Wilson’s X account posted that he’s “in good spirits, improving, and speaking with family.”
What S.C. plans to do about its rapidly aging bridges. Right now, about 2,400 bridges across the state are 60 years or older, and many of them were built to last around 75 years. South Carolina Transportation Secretary Justin Powell said that number of aging bridges will swell over the next decade to around 3,900 if the Department of Transportation’s current funding level for bridges holds steady without additional dollars coming in.
S.C. attorney general, USC host summit on combating antisemitism on college campuses. The one-day event, organized by the Combat Antisemitism Movement at the behest of Attorney General Alan Wilson and held at the University of South Carolina’s alumni center, covered topics such as how universities can protect Jewish students and hosted tours of the Anne Frank Center on campus.
New S.C. program to help survivors of human trafficking remove bad debt. The program will make the Palmetto State the second in the nation to offer support for those looking to use the 2022 federal Debt Bondage Repair Act. The services apply to a narrow set of circumstances, such as when traffickers used their victims’ Social Security number to open credit cards or take out a car loan.
Politically-connected developer to win big in lease deal to the state. Bill Stern, a Columbia developer who chairs the S.C. Ports Authority, has “paid $35 million for a sprawling Lexington County office campus. Now he’s leasing it to the state in a deal worth 11 times that over the next 20 years.”
Life expectancy is falling in S.C., data show. “While the state’s life expectancy increased from 2018 to 2019, it declined in 2020 and 2021 thanks in part to deaths associated with COVID-19. The report also cites an increase in unintentional injuries, particularly drug overdose deaths, as another major cause of the lower national life expectancy.”
S.C. prison to turn cow manure into natural gas. An inmate-run gas plant at Wateree River Correctional Institution in rural Sumter County will turn cow manure into renewable energy that can power major companies in the state.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!