Sanford Says 'Put Parents In Charge' Unlikely To Pass

COLUMBIA -- Gov. Mark Sanford said he will continue to push for school choice legislation, but he doubts a tuition tax credit bill has much chance of passing when lawmakers return to Columbia in January.

He said a bill that would make it easier to create local charter schools probably could get enough support to pass.

The governor told The Charlotte Observer in North Carolina that he would not press lawmakers to pass his tuition tax credit bill, dubbed Put Parents in Charge.

Democrats seized on his comments and said the governor was either conceding failure or pulling an election-year stunt.

Sanford said he thought realistically that the most that could get done was the charter school bill.

Whether or not Sanford is one of its leading proponents, House Education Committee chairman Ron Townsend, of Anderson, told the Observer that the army of school choice advocates in the state would not likely back down.