Some South Carolinians no doubt will find Gov. Mark Sanford's turnabout on school choice last week to be vertigo-inducing. A year ago, Sanford deemed passage of a bill to allow S.C. parents to offset private school tuition with state and local tax credits a top priority. Last week, he abandoned that cause.

Instead, Sanford will spend his remaining political capital on the proposal to strip S.C. school districts of their authority over creation of charter schools. The bill he's backing would transfer the power to approve charter schools to an independent statewide panel - taking what Sanford sees as public educators' instinctive bias against charter schools out of the equation.

South Carolinians for Responsible Government, the citizens lobbying group working hardest for Put Parents in Charge, vowed to fight on without the governor. But the loss of Sanford's support likely dooms the bill.

Why would Sanford do this? Practical politics. Charter schools are alternative public schools. A bill liberalizing the rules under which they can be created conceivably could make it through the legislative pipeline to his desk - giving him a reform victory to take to the voters in 2006.

Put Parents in Charge is a harder sell. The notion of diverting public resources to private schools invokes fear and fury in the public education lobby. An election-year money fight with the state's school boards, administrators and teachers likely would end badly for Sanford.

But Sanford's advocacy for tax credits helped convince many South Carolinians that there could be a place for subsidized private schools in the state's public education repertoire. What are those people supposed to do with those feelings, now that he has deemed Put Parents in Charge politically untenable? You couldn't blame them for feeling betrayed.