Inez Tenenbaum came to Myrtle Beach to set the record straight.

The S.C. superintendent of education said Wednesday that Gov. Mark Sanford and advocates of the failed Put Parents in Charge legislation are wrong to say South Carolina ranks last in education.

Tenenbaum offered statistics from the National Assessment of Educational Progress and referred to six national studies during her annual State of the Schools address to buoy her argument that S.C. schools have made remarkable gains in the past six years and that those in public education are "doing the best work we have ever done."

"Everyone here today should understand one central thing about the defeat of Gov. Sanford's voucher bill," Tenenbaum said to a group of almost 1,500 school administrators attending the Summer Leadership Institute at Kingston Plantation in Myrtle Beach. "It was not defeated because it was unaccountable, unproven and unaffordable although research proves that it was all of those things. It also was not defeated because everything is perfect in public education and no one wants any improvements. We all know that isn't true. This legislation was defeated, instead, for one simple reason: because the people of South Carolina still believe in public education."

Sanford's spokesman Will Folks disagreed; he said the legislation did not pass because lawmakers were not willing to compromise or discuss the matter.

Of Tenenbaum's statement, Folks said: "It's hard to believe that someone would be against not only a way out for our most at-risk students to get the education they need but would also improve the public schools they leave. It just doesn't make sense.

"Every place school choice has been implemented, it has worked. I challenge you, Madam Superintendent: Find me a place where school choice hasn't worked."

Georgetown County Schools Superintendent Randy Dozier, who heard Tenenbaum's address, appeared to be somewhere in the middle.

"I'm not totally opposed to any of these issues. I think they all have merit," Dozier said. "Competition doesn't worry me. People generally are very supportive of their home schools."

Tenenbaum said the state led the country in the biggest gains in math-testing scores for poor eighth-graders - and for all eighth-graders - from 2000 to 2003. She said only 22 of 1,100 S.C. schools were rated unsatisfactory by No Child Left behind standards. She said the state had grown its number of National Board Certified teachers from five in 1998 to 3,866 in 2004 and praised the General Assembly for funding a $7,500 annual stipend for those teachers.

After emphasizing school progress, Tenenbaum identified five challenges she and the Department of Education will focus on in the near future: equity funding, early-childhood education, high school redesign, at-risk youth and raising SAT scores.

"Providing an adequate education to all children - regardless of race, income, geographic location - is vital to the continued prosperity of our entire state," Tenenbaum said.

She talked specifically about the equity lawsuit filed against the legislature by eight S.C. school districts, which Tenenbaum said were "overwhelmingly minority ... overwhelmingly, devastatingly poor." She said the districts did not have the money to attract high-quality teachers or pay for adequate buildings and learning materials. Tenenbaum said the court would issue an opinion in the lawsuit in the next few months and that she hoped the court would instruct the legislature to provide a fair solution.

"In the meantime," Tenenbaum said, "keeping the cause of equity funding before the General Assembly, and pushing for ways to help support the districts that need our help the most, will continue to be one of my most important priorities."

Tenenbaum emphasized the need to better prepare economically disadvantaged children for school through early-intervention programs such as Head Start, programs for 4-year-olds in public schools and literacy services for parents.

Tenenbaum said high schools must be redesigned to do a better job of training students for higher education and employment.

"Since tomorrow's economy will no longer be based on unskilled labor but will require more advanced education, the existing high school system must be changed so that all students - not just a select group - take rigorous course work that prepares them for college or work," she said.

Tenenbaum also called for a comprehensive plan to help at-risk youth: those involved in gangs, drugs, juvenile delinquency, teen pregnancy and truancy. She said she wants to see better prevention programs and more cooperation between the public school system and family courts, the law-enforcement community, and other public agencies and nonprofit groups.

As to SAT scores, Tenenbaum said that although there is "no validity in using the SAT to rank and compare academic achievement ... the news media and the public do use SAT scores to rate school quality. ... Until we substantially raise our SAT scores ... every valid achievement our schools make will be downplayed and marginalized."

Tenenbaum told the crowd of school principals, assistant principals, district superintendents and other school leaders that it was up to them to continue the state's educational progress.

"The fate of our students and the fate of our South Carolina are one in the same," she said. "Continuing to do right by both of them is our responsibility. It is our privilege. It is our honor."