Georgia officially broke another fundraising record – $81.8 MILLION in ONE WEEK!!!

Yes, you are reading that right – ALMOST $82 MILLION in SEVEN DAYS and as far as we know (note sarcasm), the exact same IRS rules and Federal tax laws apply to Georgia as South Carolina.

Remember that excuse? 👇 And apparently (not so) Exceptional SC, #FireChadConnelly & Board Chairman Tom Persons are are still telling parents and school officials this excuse today.

#FireChadConnelly has failed every child in this program and thousands of others who could have benefited from it in the future! This is what you get when a good “Republican” like Chad Connelly who preaches free markets … but when it comes to lining their own pockets they want NO COMPETITION.

Think about it … SC HAS NO CHOICE IN SCHOOL CHOICE!!!

Would you work with (not so) Exceptional SC if you has any choice at all???

Kids suffer and the program fails under government operations yet neither #FireChadConnelly nor Board Chairman Tom Persons will come to the table to try to fix it. How many more children will need to suffer for them to see that (not so) Exceptional SC has an UNCONSTITUTIONAL problem … and it is A BIG PROBLEM and DONORS know it!!! 

SC is the NATION’S ONLY state that has a government run K-12 tax credit scholarship program. 23 programs nationwide, billions annually, 25 years of history … and SC figures it is better for the government to run the program. Our neighbors in Georgia met the 2019 $100 MILLION cap and started strong with over $80 MILLION in the first week of 2020, while #FireChadConnelly could only raise $3.5 MILLION (maybe a little more – we’re still waiting for the final results) … and instead of putting on a big push at the end of 2019 … he went SKIING!!!

Where is (not so) Exceptional SC??? Children are suffering, Chad Connelly goes skiing …

The Waldo cartoon above might actually be funny if we were not talking about your child’s education, their future, their hope … and YOUR finances.  Has anyone heard anything from Exceptional SC???  2019 fundraising has ended as of 12/31/2019 … and NO UPDATES!!!  We have watched this for years … and we are only amazed they can do WORSE than they did before.  Speechless … simply speechless … this is governmental malpractice.

So where is (not so) Exceptional SC???

Schools are shutting down, we are receiving reports that field trips are getting cancelled, children are being pulled out of school midyear, parents working two jobs and getting their credit cards charged up to pay tuition bills … yet instead of spending the last week of 2019 raising as much in the “end of year” donations as possible we found #FireChadConnelly having a carefree time skiing in West Virginia. Or was he looking for donors at the top of the mountain???

That really was “a great way to cap off the decade” … right? Well, not for parents and schools!!! Maybe if #FireChadConnelly did what he gets paid to do, some of our families would be able to take a little break from worrying about how to pay school tuition and go on little a vacation too!

All we can suggest is to CALL YOUR LEGISLATOR … explain the utter incompetency going on … and ask them to return the program to the independent nonprofits like it is done in EVERY OTHER STATE IN THE NATION (and to FULLY FUND the program)!!!  Senator Tom Davis‘ bill S 131 would have fixed ALL of this!!! 

Will Exceptional SC support the bill to fix this mess? Stay tuned!!!

Back in October, after a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request and a LAWSUIT, we discovered how bad (not so) Exceptional SC’s fundraising was and reported it HERE. We wrote HERE about how dangerous and unnecessary of a game (not so) Exceptional SC has been playing with our children, all so Chad Connelly can have a job?!

Well, two months forward, everything we have been predicting and warning people from the day Palmetto Promise Institute published their failed legislative analysis of the government taking over the program, is coming to reality!

One of the “full time special needs schools” that was one of the earliest adopters and beneficiaries of the program before the government takeover, is “fighting to stay open”. Check out the story by WIS News HERE.

This is simply heartbreaking … but also we all saw it coming. We have been warning YOU, school leaders and legislators for years … and the fact that #FireChadConnelly still blames the tax law changes that happened in December, 2017 … nearly two years ago … is simply mind boggling!!!

Also, lets not forget that IRS tax law changes apply to ALL states … yet our neighbors in Georgia raised $100,000,000 and funded all their kids! So, NO, tax changes are not the issue … #FireChadConnelly and the fact that the unconstitutional structure concerns of the NATION’S ONLY government run K-12 tax credit scholarship program we have in SC is the problem … not to mention Chad Connelly is too busy playing games to do his job (click HERE)!

How many more children need to get hurt, how many schools need to shut down before legislators bring a real tax credit scholarship program back to SC?!?! The solution is clear … Senator Tom Davis’ Bill S 131 / H 3202 will fix all the problems!!!