State school chief slams school-choice ad

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Tenenbaum, a Democrat, said the ad's producers are chief Sanford supporters and are acting "shamelessly."

Sanford supports the legislation but isn't responsible for the ad, a spokesman said. "It's unfortunate this kind of conversation ends up being about ads rather than issues like improving education here in South Carolina," said Chris Drummond, a Sanford spokesman.

He said the governor hasn't heard the ad.

Sen. John Matthews, a Democrat from Bowman who sits on the Senate Education Committee, said any false statements in an ad on the issue will hurt the legislation's chance of passage.

"If you are going to talk about educating children, I think you've got to set an example," he said. "When you put out misleading information and you know it's misleading, then I think it reflects on what children see in our leaders.

"If they can't put the facts on to support their case and debate the facts, that tells me they're on the wrong side of the issue."

Tom Swatzel, president of South Carolinians For a Responsible Government, the group that produced the ad, said the ad wouldn't be pulled.

"We certainly stand behind the ads," he said. "We believe they are accurate."

The ad alleges that South Carolina schools "are below the rest of the nation" and have the highest dropout rate and the lowest test scores.

"We have accomplished so much," an electronically altered voice of Tenenbaum says mockingly throughout the ad.

"Just because you say it doesn't make it true," a woman's voice answers Tenenbaum's on the ad.

Tenenbaum, in her seventh year as leader of the state's schools, said the ad's facts are wrong and are part of a campaign by an out-of-state organization spending hundreds of thousands of dollars "to misrepresent the truth and mislead people about the progress our students and teachers have made."

She said the state's dropout rate "is not even close to the highest." And while the state's SAT scores ranked this year as the nation's lowest, she said other standardized scores rank at the national or international average.

She said the state is among only 23 states where students predominantly choose to take the SAT.

"It makes me very angry," Tenenbaum told reporters Friday. "They are using my voice to ridicule all the hard work of our students and our teachers. It's not fair and it's absolutely not right."

The legislation at issue, called the Put Parents in Charge Act, would offer parents tax credits that move their kids from public schools to other schools, including private.

It's currently pending in the House. Sanford has cited the bill as among his top legislative priorities.

Tenenbaum urged Sanford to become an advocate for public education, saying, "I have never seen a governor in South Carolina take the opportunity to join with a group that is now attacking public education."

Drummond said Sanford's political ads have always been about advancing ideas, which the radio ad doesn't do.

"He believes ads from both sides should always be about advancing ideas," he said. "These ads don't help advance the real debate in our political process about ideas that ultimately impact people's lives."

A study by the South Carolina School Boards Association this week concluded that schools could lose money if the bill is enacted. The bill's backers have said the opposite is true.

Swatzel said the ad is in the middle of its two-week span. He said it is airing in the Midlands part of the state.