A year ago, it looked as though the Horry County quest to reclaim August for tourism had failed. Instead of pushing the public-school starting date closer to Labor Day, the 2002 S.C. General Assembly agreed only to appoint a panel to study the matter.

What a difference a year makes. On Thursday, S.C. tourism venues, the Grand Strand included, got some of what they wanted: a written agreement from S.C. Education Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum pushing the date for the high-stakes Palmetto Achievement Challenge Tests in reading, writing, math, social studies and science into mid-May, beginning in 2005.

Equally important, the S.C. State Board of Education's December 2002 rule closing schools until at least a week before Labor Day has survived. It takes effect in August 2004.

Tenenbaum's promised later testing date will reduce pressure on S.C. school boards to begin classes in early August to ensure students maximum instruction before the tests. But S.C. legislators can and probably will pass local bills exempting school districts they represent from the rule. More than 30 such local bills are pending before the S.C. Senate.

So many S.C. school boards will continue starting school in early August, denying parents that last summer trip to the beach or mountains - and denying tourism venues an extra revenue shot at the end of the high season. The situation may not be ideal, but it's far better than it might have been if former Rep. Mark Kelley, R-Myrtle Beach, had not slipped some special language into the 2002 bill that created the study panel.

That legislation required the panel to report its results to the state Board of Education last fall. Kelley's wording stipulated that if the board acted on the issue, it should do so as a rule, not a regulation.

The difference is critical. Legislators can overturn regulations before they take effect. But rules take effect without legislative review. Thus, the state board's narrow adoption of the one-week-before-Labor Day rule in December triggered a legislative firestorm - prompting some members to feel snookered. But it gave the issue high exposure.

What emerged after 2003 session-long bickering was a bill to negate the rule, which became temporarily dead with Tenenbaum's edict. But the bill remains alive for 2004, and its chief sponsor, Rep. Ronnie Townsend, R-Anderson, the chairman of the House education committee, is likely to try again to roll back these gains for S.C. tourism. Does this mean the Horry County-centered public-private effort to recover August for tourism was futile? No.

At a minimum, it helped folks around the state understand how large a revenue contribution the coastal counties, especially Horry, make to the rest of the state. Tourism generates a cornucopia of sales-tax revenue, every penny of which goes into school budgets.

Also dispelled is the zero-sum notion that tourism's gain is public education's loss. Tenenbaum's mid-May PACT ruling demolishes the argument that S.C. youngsters would get too little pre-testing instruction if schools open nearer to Labor Day. The ideal is 160 days, and there will be plenty of school calendar room for that.

This was a great effort, the heroes of which are Horry County legislators, past and present. Also deserving special mention is state board Chairman Greg Killian of Myrtle Beach, who guided the rule to 9-8 passage in December.

If nothing else, our community leadership has learned it can be heard in Columbia if members focus on a common message and stick to it.