Letter to the Editor: Wording Matters
In this short Letter to the Editor, originally published in The Post and Courier, I point out a fundamental truth in the school choice debate – the words we use matter. If we are going to have an honest debate about what school choice should look like in South Carolina, we have to be specific in our terminology: school vouchers are not education savings accounts (ESAs), and the reason why goes beyond common parlance.
As we near the general election, we know that words matter. Colloquialisms in debates can confuse the matter — whether we are at war with Iran or currently engaged in a conflict carries a lot of consequences.
The same applies to the debate over school choice. If we want to have a productive debate over school choice in South Carolina, be specific. Be intentional in the words you use.
South Carolina’s Education Scholarship Trust Fund program is not, in fact, a voucher program. Despite everything we see in the news and on social media, it is a tax-funded education savings account program. The difference between the two may seem trivial, but the implications are significant.
In a voucher program, the government sets aside the funding that would have been allocated to students if they attended their usual public school, and then sends that money directly to a private school to pay that student’s tuition. That may violate Article XI, Section 4 of the S.C. Constitution, which prohibits direct state aid to religious or private schools. Educational savings accounts put control in the hands of parents, who can choose to spend their allocated funding however it best benefits their child on pre-approved expenses.
Perhaps “voucher” is a colloquialism, or perhaps it is being used intentionally to skew the debate by aligning the ESTF with an illegal program. Either way, be intentional. We would not use Social Security to refer to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and we should not use “voucher” to refer to education savings accounts.
