COLUMBIA, SC - Sylvia Wright, Candidate for South Carolina State Superintendent of Education, issued the following statement in response to recent reporting on the state’s Education Scholarship Trust Fund voucher program:
"South Carolinians were promised accountability for every taxpayer dollar diverted from public schools into private hands. Instead, we have an $83 million voucher program in its third year and still no valid data showing whether it works for students.
"According to reporting and the Education Oversight Committee itself, hundreds of test scores that are required under state law are missing from the program’s inaugural year. Nearly 2,900 students received vouchers in 2024–25, but the state only received scores for 798, and barely 286 of those were even usable. No graduation data was provided. No prior-year scores were supplied so we could measure growth. Even basic breakdowns by grade, gender, income, and race were incomplete. The agency charged with evaluating the program has concluded it does not have a representative sample and cannot fairly assess academic performance.
"This is not a minor paperwork problem. This is a fundamental breakdown of transparency and accountability at the South Carolina Department of Education.
"The program has tripled in size, from 5,000 to 15,000 students and from $30 million to $83 million in taxpayer funding, yet the critical guardrails needed to protect accountability and ensure responsible use of public funds have not kept pace. Families have been allowed to continue receiving vouchers even when there is no usable test data to show how their children are doing. The law is clear that academic progress must be documented annually for each scholarship student so that parents and the public can measure the program’s achievements. That is not happening.
"Bluntly, this is a crisis of leadership.
"I oppose using public tax dollars to subsidize private education. This is not just a philosophical disagreement; it is a practical one. We are watching in real time what happens when we siphon money away from public schools into a system that lacks transparency, reliable data, and strong leadership: chaos, confusion, and no clear evidence of improved outcomes for children.
"As Superintendent, I will:
- End the diversion of public education dollars to private schools and unregulated vendors.
- Restore a laser focus on strengthening our public schools in every zip code.
- Require clear, public reporting for every state-funded program affecting students, with real consequences when agencies or vendors fail to comply with the law.
- Rebuild trust through transparency: no expansion of experimental programs without solid, independently verified data.
"A strong Superintendent of Education would never expand any program, let alone one that funnels public tax dollars to private schools, this aggressively without first demanding reliable data and full public reporting. Instead, we have shifting explanations, missing scores, and half-answers. The Department has admitted that many test results were submitted through photographs, screenshots, and manually entered information rather than standardized score reports. That is not a serious accountability system for tens of millions of public dollars.
"Every dollar sent to private schools, big-box retailers, or unregulated “unbundled” homeschooling services is a dollar not invested in our neighborhood public schools, the only schools with an obligation to serve every child. Nearly $700,000 went to commercial vendors like Best Buy, Staples, and Office Depot in the first five weeks of 2024 alone, while another $878,000 went to private and out-of-district public school tuition. Yet the public still cannot see clear evidence that these expenditures are improving student learning.
"When public money leaves public schools, the oversight should get stronger, not weaker. Right now, it’s the opposite. The public is being asked to simply trust that this program works, even as the very agency charged with evaluating it warns that using the limited data available would be negligent.
"That is how you lose public trust.
"South Carolina’s families, teachers, and taxpayers deserve better than missing test scores and empty promises. They deserve a leader who will protect public dollars, defend public schools, and put students first!
"That is the kind of leadership I intend to bring to the Department of Education.
"— Sylvia Wright, Candidate for South Carolina State Superintendent of Education"