COLUMBIA, S.C. - A new panel appointed by Gov. Mark Sanford will look at ways to improve education nearly a decade after lawmakers approved sweeping changes to make schools more accountable.

It's too early to tell what Sanford's Education Reform Council will focus on, said Steve Matthews, a Columbia lawyer who heads the 20-member panel of businesspeople, educators and students appointed earlier this month.

The governor has charged the panel with examining the state's K-12 education system with the aim of finding ideas to improve student performance on national standardized tests and cutting the high school dropout rate, Sanford's spokesman Will Folks said.

Sanford backs a bill that would give tax credits to parents whose children transfer from public schools. But the panel is not charged with studying the effect of school choice on public schools, Folks said.

"We don't need a council to tell us that choice improves public education because that's been proven in every market where it's been implemented," he said. "We're already sold on that solution. This panel is about looking for new ideas."

The panel will meet in April to decide what to study and will make its recommendations by the end of the year.

"Exactly what sorts of things we will be looking at and how we will organize is still to be determined," said Matthews, whose three children attend public schools in Richland District 1. "Obviously there are a lot of ideas currently under discussion with respect to education in South Carolina."

Matthews said the council's efforts likely will lead to changes in law and in school districts.

A panel appointed by Republican Gov. David Beasley helped drive the passage of the Education Accountability Act in 1998. That legislation established higher academic standards for South Carolina's public schools and established a system to rate schools and direct resources.

"What the governor's commission will be doing ... we'll just have to wait and see," said Education Department spokesman Jim Foster. "Certainly any focus on public schools with an eye toward improving them is a positive thing."

A panel appointed by state Education Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum is studying ways to improve education at the high school level, Foster said.

Folks says Sanford's panel will have a broader focus.

"If we're only looking at problems in high school, we're missing the point because frankly too many kids in South Carolina are not making it to high school," he said.

Tenenbaum's commission is examining high school education, including dropout and truancy rates, and will recommend improvements to the General Assembly. Tenenbaum wants to build on the progress the state has made improving early childhood education and education in primary grades, Foster said.

The recommendations of such panels have a long road to travel before they can potentially affect student achievement, said University of South Carolina professor Lorin Anderson, who studies education trends. Besides the hoops they go through to become policy, such recommendations need resources to be implemented and the support of teachers in the classroom who will ultimately enforce them, Anderson said.

"These panels are very far removed from the day-to-day life in classrooms and it's the day-to-day life in classrooms that affects student achievement," Anderson said. "The further away you get from the classroom in general, the less impact you're going to have."