State officials and advocacy groups in South Carolina and Michigan don’t see privatizing mental health services as an answer to the youth mental health crisis COVID-19 helped create by disrupting students’ lives. They agree the solution is additional funding to increase salaries of school counselors and clinicians and hire new ones to replace many who left over fear of the virus—or for better-paying jobs. Bill Lindsey, executive director of South Carolina’s chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said he was “shocked” to learn that Gov. Henry McMaster suggested the General Assembly evaluate whether the state should privatize behavioral health services currently provided by the Department of Mental Health. He said that idea is not going to help the youth of South Carolina. “I am for anything that looks to improve the mental health care system in the state,” Lindsey said, “but I am not for privatization. That is …