Photo by: Leslie Cantu/Journal Scene

State Sen. Mike Rose, R-Summerville, and state Rep. Chris Murphy, R-Summerville, listened to constituent concerns at a town hall meeting. Rose will hold another town hall Thursday at Summerville High School.

Photo by: Leslie Cantu/Journal Scene

Members of the Dorchester School District 2 board, including Charlie Stoudenmire, holding the microphone, raised concerns about school choice bills and vouchers.

School officials asked legislators Thursday to ensure any school choice bills require other schools to meet the same standards as public schools.

Dorchester School District 2 board members came to the town hall meeting with Sen. Mike Rose, R-Summerville and Rep. Chris Murphy, R-Summerville, to hear the legislators’ ideas on the upcoming General Assembly session and advocate for Dorchester’s public schools.

Rose and Murphy highlighted several likely issues for the session, including the budget, reform of the Department of Transportation, an attempt to eliminate the Budget and Control Board and pension reform.

But education financing was on the minds of many at the meeting, held at Fort Dorchester High School.

“We just need to make sure there’s equality all the way around,” said board member Gail Hughes.

Public schools must meet mandates, even down to the how schools are constructed, that private and charter schools don’t have to follow, she said.

Rose said he doesn’t support vouchers, but he does support school choice “in a manner that doesn’t hurt public schools.”

Murphy supported a bill last session that included a tax credit for parents who moved their children from public to private schools, and he and board members sparred on whether that hurt public schools.

District 2 has proven itself with its test scores, said board member Barbara Crosby, who also teaches in Berkeley County. Private schools, however, don’t have to meet state curriculum standards, she said.

“Why should we have to give them money if they’re not having to keep up with our standards,” she said.

Murphy said the bill, which failed, would have kept some money in the school.

Hughes pointed out that a $2,000 tax credit is hardly adequate to allow low-income children to attend most private schools. Elementary school tuition at Pinewood Prep is $8,800.

Rose said he’d like the board to give him more information about the differences in state-mandated requirements for public and private schools. But he said he’d also like ideas for solutions for those children who were born in the wrong place and are consigned to attend inferior schools.

“This is not a free-for-all. This is an attempt to add some value to help some kids, and if it helps some, then it’s worth it,” he said.

Murphy promised that he would act in the best interest of the children, and that if he supported a school choice bill, “it will not be to the detriment of public education.”

On the state budget, Rose and Murphy said the situation looks better this year than last year. Rose said $1 billion more in revenues are projected than were projected last year, so the General Assembly must decide whether to restore some agencies, pay down debt or return money to taxpayers.

Pension reform shouldn’t change existing employees’ benefits, they said.

“If you are in the system and you are vested, your benefits aren’t going to change,” Murphy said.

Rose will hold another town hall meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday at Summerville High School.

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