Gov. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., proposed a plan late last week that allows state institutions to become private schools and surrender federal funding if they do not want to be governed by a proposed higher-education board.

“Given the unusually high number of colleges and universities we have in South Carolina and the scarce dollars with which we’ve got to fund all of them, this is a way to give certain schools the flexibility they want while saving the state money at the same time,” Sanford said in a statement.

The proposed governing board, similar to those in North Carolina, would “eliminate the waste and duplication” of the current system and make sure “the right arm knows what the left arm is doing,” Sanford said.
The proposal is open to any public research or teaching university and is designed to alleviate tuition costs by spreading state funding over a smaller number of public institutions in South Carolina.

Will Folks, press secretary for Sanford, said the board’s role would make funding easier for all institutions in South Carolina.

“The proposal for a governing board would better streamline resources and state dollars that are currently being filtered through the system,” he said, adding that the plan is part of an effort to address the higher-education funding crisis in South Carolina.

“One of the things that drove this proposal was simply the direction in which higher education is moving in South Carolina. There are far too many schools based on our population that are chasing scarce resources.”

The four million residents of South Carolina are educated by 33 public universities and operate at 105 percent of the national average in tuition costs, soaring above the neighboring states of North Carolina, at 82 percent, and Georgia, at 86 percent.

“For the schools that choose not to take Gov. Sanford up on his proposal, there would be dollars available from the schools that did not that could be used to keep the costs of those universities low,” Folks said. “That way, more dollars would actually make it to schools in the system.”
State institutions such as Clemson University, Coastal Carolina University and the Citadel all receive less than 20 percent state funding, proving to be prime candidates for the plan. Folks noted that even though a school is receiving less than 20 percent funding from the state, it is still subjected to 100 percent of the regulation.

In gaining complete ownership of their campus, schools would have to relinquish all state funding and sign a permanent covenant promising to charge a preferred tuition rate for South Carolina residents.

“[After privatization] schools would immediately assume ownership of their land, buildings, vehicles, computers, you name it,” Folks said.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, national higher-education experts said the proposal was unprecedented, pointing out that no state has yet allowed public universities to wholly transform into private colleges.

However, Folks is confident the governor’s new proposal will benefit institutions in South Carolina.

“There hasn’t been a statewide governing process to oversee the system, and where you don’t have that governing board charting a statewide vision is when you end up with resources that just aren’t there to support that progression,” he said. “Until we see that governing board in place, unfortunately in essence every school is trying to be everything and everybody.”