Gov. Mark Sanford wants to give tax credits to families who choose to send their children to a private school, transfer them to a public school in another district or teach them at home.

The plan was included in Sanford’s budget package.

The credits — offered on property or income taxes — apparently would be up to $4,100 per year and apply to any family making less than $75,000 a year.

“By enacting a wide-scale, universal credit, we will provide more options for all students to receive an adequate education and will take a step toward advancing equity funding for education,” Sanford wrote in his budget proposal.

But Sanford’s office would not answer questions about the plan. A spokesman would not say:

• Who would determine whether the credit would be on property or income taxes

• If all families in the income range would qualify for a $4,100 credit

• Why the proposal differs from the “academic passport” plan he pushed during the 2002 campaign

“We’ve said all we’re going to say about it,” Sanford spokesman Will Folks said. “The governor will be going into a lot more detail on this and other school choice components in the upcoming legislative session.”

In 2002, Sanford proposed an “academic passport,” or voucher, plan that would give parents $3,550 to send students to private schools if their children attended a failing public school.

As presented in his budget Thursday, the tax credit plan would be available for all students in the income range.

Several educators criticized the proposal as a “back door” voucher plan that transfers taxpayer dollars to private schools.

And private school administrators noted that few slots would be available to parents who wanted to use the credit.

The $4,100 is roughly half of what state and federal governments and local taxpayers spend per student per year, according to the governor’s budget proposal.

Elizabeth Gressette, executive director of the Palmetto State Teachers Union, said the state only provides $1,700 of that amount; the rest comes from local property taxes or federal grants.

“What the governor is proposing is to fund a private school or home-schooler at two to three times what it funds a public school,” she said. “How can the state give parents more to send their children to a private school than it is appropriating to send them to a public school?”

Robert Scarborough, executive director of the S.C. Association of School Administrators, said he was “disappointed with these types of disguised voucher programs which encourage families to abandon their local schools for a for-profit, private school.”

Vince Ford, Richland 1’s school board chairman, said schools have accepted the challenges of accountability and are succeeding at increasing students’ academic success.

“But the leadership of the state hasn’t kept up financially,” Ford said. “This is not holding (public) schools’ feet to the fire. This is letting someone take the fire somewhere else.”

Some private educators were also doubtful it would help private schools.

Herb Barks, headmaster of Hammond School, a pre-K through 12th-grade private school in Columbia, said the proposal, as it appears, doesn’t offer parents much choice.

“We have waiting lists in almost all grades. The slots for more kids just aren’t there.”

And even if spots were available, the tuition is about $8,000 per year. Families would only get up to $4,100 in credits.