Supporters of Gov. Mark Sanford’s signature education issue have a message for the governor: Please put Put Parents in Charge in the State of the State.

As Sanford prepares for his third State of the State address Wednesday, those supporters are eager for the Republican to lobby hard in favor of the bill.

“I’d like to think it would be a major part of the State of the State speech,” said Tom Swatzel of Murrells Inlet, president of the conservative organization South Carolinians for Responsible Government, which has made Put Parents in Charge one of its key issues.

“There is a huge grass-roots effort to assist the governor in passing the Put Parents in Charge Act. I would like to see it be part of the speech.”

Swatzel’s organization, which enjoys the backing of several national conservative policy groups, recently has launched a television, radio and billboard advertising campaign to help galvanize public support for the bill.

The legislation, which would give parents an income tax break to send their children to a private school or another public school, is one of the governor’s priorities for the year. The concept of school choice also was one of the key planks of his 2002 campaign for governor.

Yet the bill faces an uncertain future in the Republican-controlled General Assembly.

House Republicans are fractured over the issue, and Senate Education Committee chairman John Courson, R-Richland, calls support for the bill in the Senate “tepid.”

Opponents generally follow one of two arguments:

• The bill would take needed money and support away from public schools.

• It would take needed money away from everything else.

House Speaker Pro Tem Doug Smith, R-Spartanburg, has sponsored the bill in the House. He said that while Sanford has more actively promoted his income tax cut and government restructuring plan, he has not seen a softening of the governor’s interest in Put Parents in Charge.

“It’s a little early to measure that,” Smith said. “I’ll measure it personally by what he says in the State of the State.”

Sanford’s staff would not provide any insights into the governor’s speech, which he will deliver at 7 p.m. Wednesday before a joint session of the House and Senate.

Supporters, including the Illinois-based Legislative Education Action Drive, are encouraged that Sanford mentioned Put Parents in Charge in the $5.3 billion budget he proposed earlier this month.

Asked whether Sanford needs to make the bill a major part of his speech, LEAD director Bill Wilson demurred. “Oh, I don’t know. I don’t try to read tea leaves like that.”

LEAD and South Carolinians for Responsible Government are connected in more than just philosophy of government. Each is part of a network of organizations that includes Americans for Limited Government, Social Security Choice, and U.S. Term Limits.

But Wilson’s organization — dedicated to promoting plans such as Put Parents in Charge — has made South Carolina the bellwether of its efforts nationally.

With a Republican governor who has long supported some kind of taxpayer-funded school choice plan, and a Republican-controlled House and Senate, the group saw South Carolina as a great opportunity for a statewide initiative.

Failure here could have national implications for the school choice movement.

Still, Wilson said, there is a long way to go.

“This is going to be a full campaign all the way through, and things will come and go and ebb and flow all the way through it,” Wilson said.

Courson, the Senate Education Committee chairman, warns that time is actually short.

“If he’s going to get one of these major items passed for him to sign into law, he needs to do it this year,” Courson said. “Once we adjourn in June, we automatically go into election cycle for 2006. Next year, regrettably, there will probably be a lot of partisan debate and underlying currents on any legislation.”

Reach Gould Sheinin at (803) 771-8658 or asheinin@thestate.com