Ending the Shame of Blaine

The Catholic Bishop of Charleston, along with the South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities, filed a federal lawsuit challenging the South Carolina constitution's "Blaine Amendment." This provision, which prohibits the state from "directly" funding any religious or private school, is responsible for blocking the schools operated by the litigants from receiving the federal COVID-19 relief funds to which they are entitled. Although Governor McMaster planned to distribute these funds equitably to all schools, the Blaine Amendment has caused private schools in South Carolina, including many that educate the state's most vulnerable children and young adults, to miss out on millions of dollars of federal coronavirus funding during the pandemic.