A former Georgetown County councilman is at the forefront of what could be the hottest statewide issue this year: tax credits for tuition at private school or home schooling.

Tom Swatzel's S.C. Citizens for Responsible Government, founded a year and a half ago, has ballooned to 80,000 members and now has two full-time employees, a Web site and billboards.

It will be the lead organization in pushing for the change some opponents say is an attempt to destroy public schools.

"It's the most important issue for South Carolina right now, and that is to improve the overall quality of K-12 education in the state," Swatzel said.

The bill called the Put Parents in Charge Act states that its purpose is to restore parental control of education, improve public school performance and expand educational opportunities for poor children.

Legislators say they think the bill will pass the House early in the session, which begins Jan. 11, but its fate in the Senate is uncertain.

The proposal had a brief flurry of public hearings at the Capitol in the spring, then died for the season.

But it is one of Gov. Mark Sanford's priorities and is expected to get a bigger boost this year because the Republican leadership in the House has promised to push it.

Skeptics say it's a way to take money that should go to public schools and give it to people who have enough income to send their kids to private schools.

A tax credit of less than $4,000 won't pay for private school, they say.

"If you aren't careful, what you're going to end up with in this state is a two-tiered education system;" one for the well-to-do and another for the others, said Will Garland, chairman of the Horry County schools board.

Supporters have answered that question by adding a provision into the new bill that fosters the creation of scholarship-granting organizations. These groups would receive donations, which would qualify the donors for tax credits.

Opponents sometimes refer to the proposal as a voucher plan, but it isn't. With a voucher, parents receive coupons they can take to private schools. The coupons are paid for with public money.

The new bill gives income or property tax credits for home schooling and private schools. It also gives the credit for public schools that charge tuition, usually done when a student does not live in the district.

Swatzel and supporters say tax credits are not public money because it has not been paid to the treasury.

Garland, though, says even tax credits are a form of public money, "because where would it go if they didn't take the tax credit? To the treasury."

State Rep. Vida Miller, D-Pawleys Island, said she doesn't see how the program can work without drawing funds from public schools.

"As an elected person, I think that our obligation first and foremost is protecting public schools," she said.

"I have questions about it," said state Sen. Luke Rankin, R-Myrtle Beach. "The question is, in a well-performing school district such as Horry County's, you can't help but wonder how that will take away from the end result of good performance."

Georgetown County school board Chairman Joe Crosby said he is not opposed to the concept, but that many questions need to be answered and the result should be schools that are accessible to all children.

"Education needs to have a say in this," Crosby said.

Major education organizations such as the S.C. Education Association and parent-teacher groups are also raising questions about the plan.

Swatzel, 47, of Murrells Inlet, served on Georgetown County Council from 1994 to 2002. He did not seek re-election, and a few months after leaving office he formed S.C. Citizens for Responsible Government to work for "individual freedoms and limited government," he said.

He was mostly on his own with the group until he took up the school tax credit cause. That was not a new interest for him.

"It's an issue I've felt strongly about since the late 1990s," Swatzel said. He traveled to Columbia to speak at a hearing on school vouchers around that time and remained interested.

He isn't interested in tax credits as a parent. Swatzel said his child is in fifth grade at Waccamaw Elementary School and he is satisfied with her education.

Why, then, be involved in a controversial issue that he doesn't plan to take advantage of himself if it's successful?

"It's an issue that benefits all children, all parents," he said. "School choice improves education and helps struggling students the most."

Competition with private schools and home schooling will force public schools to improve, Swatzel and other proponents say.

Citizens for Responsible Government took polls that showed 65 percent of the respondents favored the plan, Swatzel said. There are "a lot of people from the grass-roots perspective jumping on the bandwagon," he said.

The idea of school choice may seem attractive to many parents, but how it would work in reality may not meet expectations, Crosby said.

Low-income parents will not be able to claim enough of a tax credit to pay for private schools, he said.

And less-affluent parents, especially those who take buses to work, may not have the means to transport their children to distant private schools.

He fears that only those who already have money to flee struggling schools will leave. Crosby said that would leave the less affluent trapped in poor performing schools.

The proposal to create scholarship organizations to help lower-income families doesn't seem helpful to him because "it just creates another level of bureaucracy," he said.

Swatzel said many poor and black families support the concept, and they are not concerned about transportation. If the tuition is taken care of, the transportation problem will take care of itself, he said.

Accountability is another major problem in the proposal, which does not call for the private schools to meet any of the requirements that public schools must meet.

Miller said the private schools should meet some accountability standards. Home-schoolers are already required to meet state standards.

Rep. Tracy Edge, R-North Myrtle Beach, is among legislators who agree with that position.

He is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, which has been assigned to study the bill because of its tax implications.

"I think there has to be accountability there," Edge said. "They should be required to measure up to certain standards."

Swatzel said proponents believe the accountability in the system is that parents can walk away from the schools.

Crosby said if the private schools do not have to meet any standards, parents will have no way to choose among offerings. They could be cheated by fly-by-night schools formed to take advantage of the new law, he said.

Garland said if the private schools do not have to meet standards, it will defeat the goal of creating competition and improving education.

Private schools could pick which students they want, and not have to prove that they can educate them, he said.

"What was proposed was not anywhere close to real competition," Garland said, "and would be like the Myrtle Beach Pelicans having to play the New York Yankees every day."