Sanford pushes school-choice plan

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Of the latter, Sanford said, "This is a gut-check vote and indeed a time for choosing."

Sanford called it a "progressive idea" that both parties should embrace.

His school choice plan, "Putting Parents in Charge," is built around tax credits that would allow parents to move their children to public or private schools. A second bill would make it easier to establish charter schools.

Legislators listened passively. Most of their applause was reserved for fellow members recognized by Sanford.

Democrats were mostly critical, some derisively questioning Sanford's depiction of South Carolina education.

Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, an Orangeburg Democrat, said while she liked his mention of health and prevention issues, such as breast cancer screening, she disagreed with his education arguments.

"I would take issue with the numbers, particularly the increase in spending," she said.

But House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, said many of Sanford's points are already working their way through the House. He said Sanford's Put Parents in Charge proposal would make it to the House floor.

"It's going to be debated in committee and on the floor," he said. "It's too early to predict (the outcome) but I think it's going to be healthy for that debate to take place."

He said Sanford's speech points "are very comparable to our agenda."

Education Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum, a Democrat, said she was "disappointed" in Sanford's speech because he was not more positive about the strides that had been made.

"It could have been a positive speech for education but was not," she said. "He wants to act like he doesn't have a part in improving public education."

Tenenbaum also disagreed with his call for school choice, calling it a "scheme" that has no financial accountability.

Rep. James Smith, a former leader of the House Democrats, said there is bipartisan opposition to Sanford's school choice plan. "The big cornerstones of his speech bear no rational reality to the challenges that we face in this state," he said.

The governor, who spoke for 51 minutes, also called for hiring 425 law enforcement officers, including 100 Highway Patrol troopers, and changing the "ticking time bomb" of an overextended state retirement system to a defined contribution plan to a defined benefit plan.

The address was largely Sanford's, not a speechwriter's, product.

"He wrote a lot of it late at night in Texas" during Air Force Reserve training, said Sanford spokesman Will Folks. "He makes these pretty much exclusively his own."

Because he doubts that his call for consolidating poor, small school districts and giving $7,500 raises to nationally certified teachers to teach in critical need areas or subject, "won't make it through the political process," Sanford said, "that's why I continue to believe that what politics won't change, market forces will."

That is the essence of his argument for greater school choice, Sanford said.

Critics have accused Sanford of being hostile to education, but he said, "I believe passionately in public education."

Where Rep. Robert Harrell, a Charleston Republican who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, praised Sanford for picking the right topics, Sen. John Land, a Manning Democrat, said he had not recalled seeing so few people in the Statehouse lobby or gallery for a governor's State of the State speech.

"His solutions for South Carolina are wrong. We have an underfunded government as it is, an underfunded school system. To talk about reducing taxes on the wealthy in South Carolina and putting more burden on the working middle class is wrong. To talk about taking money away from the public school system to give to the private school system when our public school system is underfunded is wrong. I don't know what world he's living in."

Meeting earlier with reporters, Sanford said he saw the speech as an opportunity to talk directly with the people and those legislators who largely stymied his agenda in his first two years in office.

Whether it was schools, taxes, tort reform or giving the Governor's Office broad new authority over the bureaucracy, Sanford's speech linked each to necessary "changes so that our state can compete on the international playing field, but more importantly, about making changes that can transform people's lives."

Two of those, the six-year tax cut of marginal rates to 4.75 percent from 7 percent and expansion of charter schools are being debated this week in the House and are expected to be approved by its Republican majority.

Sanford asked legislators who oppose the change or are uncertain of their vote to consider how other nations are using their tax codes to spur development and "how it is not a party, but an economic competitiveness issue."

China, which is devouring the American textile industry with more cheaply produced goods, has no capital gains tax and Russia and Slovakia are increasing investment with flat tax rates of 13 and 19 percent, respectively, Sanford said.

"So it is again a time for choosing, between a tax system that holds us back and a tax system that allows us to better compete with the rest of the world," he said.

Sanford also asked that lawmakers not water down his request for making some elected statewide officers gubernatorial appointees and give the Governor's Office executive oversight similar to the 49 other states. Both would improve efficiency and accountability while saving money.

Unmentioned by Sanford were tens of millions of dollars in cuts to higher education programs, including closing two University of South Carolina campuses and cuts to Clemson University's Public Service Activities. Those recommendations are expected to meet fierce opposition.

Even with next year's re-election campaign approaching, Sanford told reporters he felt no urgent need to get his entire legislative package through this year.

"You offer folks in the political process ideas that you ran on, ideas that you think are important to improving our state, and let the chips fall where they may," he said.

"The choice for action is up to the legislative body. They might feel the heat, from the standpoint of urgency in that it's been quite some time we've been talking about these things and there hasn't been action taken. We've done our part," Sanford said.

Sanford referred to his own "deliberate style, focused on long-term outcome."

It's a style that's very different from most of his predecessors who came to the office from the Legislature with years of rough and tumble experience. Sanford is a Lowcountry developer who beat a half-dozen seasoned politicians for a U.S. House seat, served three terms and went home.

Republican Govs. Carroll Campbell and David Beasley and Democratic Govs. Dick Riley and Jim Hodges were products of the Legislature, familiar with its culture and personalities and able to work the system. But Sanford revels in being the consummate outsider, maverick even.

Just last year, Sanford carried a pair of piglets into the lobby separating the House and Senate to illustrate his displeasure with pork barrel spending and the House's speedy override of his vetoes. Legislators were irate; Sanford's poll numbers went up.

Columbia lobbyist Warren Tompkins, who was Campbell's first term chief of staff, said the difference in backgrounds and approach may partially explain why Sanford's agenda has been slow to win approval.

"Both are very good at articulating a message, but Campbell very aggressively went after his and didn't wait for opportunities to come to him. Sanford seems to throw out ideas and wait for the product to come back to him in some form."

Where Campbell was a "roll-up-your-sleeves-get-involved-in-the-mix governor," Tompkins said Sanford is "a more laid-back, hands-off executive that likes to advance ideas and let others thrash out the details, then pass judgment on it when it gets to him."

Staff writer Dan Hoover covers politics and can be reached at 298-4883.