COLUMBIA - Gov. Mark Sanford won't try again next year to push lawmakers to pass his plan to let parents reduce their tax bills by the amount they spend on private school tuition or home-school expenses, he told the Observer.

"You don't ever want to back away from things that you believe in," Sanford, a Republican who is up for re-election in 2006, said in a telephone interview late last week. But, he said, "the bottom line in our political system is that you cannot force anything; you can only nudge it."

Sanford said he will focus instead on a proposal that would make it easier to create charter schools within the public school system. Charter schools operate using public money but are free of many of the regulations that govern traditional public schools.

They often target the needs of specific types of students, ranging from academically gifted to those with learning disabilities.

Although they have been authorized in South Carolina since 1996, only 27 are operating, including two in Rock Hill and one in Lancaster.

Observers say the growth of charter schools is impeded by the current requirement that any prospective charter school be approved by the local public school district.

"A lot of times, local school districts are not very supportive of innovation or change," said state Sen. Wes Hayes, R-Rock Hill. "State and federal dollars follow the students, and the districts aren't ready to let that money leave the regular schools and go to a charter school."

Sanford wants to take that authority away from local districts and give to a statewide panel that would approve or reject charter school applications.

"I think that's one we can drag across the finish line," Sanford said of the charter school bill, currently on the Senate calendar. Lawmakers will return in January for the second year of their two-year session.

Last fall and winter, Sanford put an all-out effort into his private school tuition tax credit plan, which he dubbed "Put Parents in Charge." He made speeches around the state and devoted fully one third of his State of the State address in January to the plan, which he said would improve South Carolina's underperforming public schools by creating competition.

Simultaneously, two national conservative groups that advocate alternatives to public education spent at least $250,000 to lobby and run TV ads to get the plan passed.

One of the groups is the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based All Children Matter, whose president is former Amway CEO Richard DeVos.

The other is Legislative Education Action Drive (LEAD), based in the Washington, D.C., area. It gives financial support and advice to an in-state organization called South Carolinians for Responsible Government.

But although Sanford's popularity ratings were high and South Carolina is one of the nation's most conservative states, the issue divided conservative voters.

"In a number of areas that are heavily Republican, where public schools are the schools of choice, it didn't have the support of well-to-do people," said College of Charleston political science professor Bill Moore. "It was an idea that was not well-received across the state, period."

In April, the Republican-controlled S.C. House first pared down the plan to a pilot project, to be tried in two school districts for 11 years. Then it killed the bill altogether.

Advocates of the plan vow to fight on. Denver Merrill, spokesman for South Carolinians for Responsible Government, said he expects a new version of the tuition tax credits bill to be introduced in the upcoming legislative session.

"We've got upwards of 100,000 people who are supporting our effort," Merrill said. "The citizens of South Carolina are fed up with the education system the way it presently stands, and they want more choice in how and where their children are educated."

But House Education Committee chairman Ron Townsend, R-Anderson, said that without the governor's support for the plan, "It brings the chance down a whole lot."

At the same time, Townsend said, "The issue's still going to be there, because I don't think these folks are going to pack their bags and go home. I believe they're here for the long haul."

Former York County Council member Peggy Upchurch, an activist for South Carolinians for Responsible Government, acknowledged that "the public push may not be as strong" this year as last.

But, she said, "In the background, we will be working as hard as ever" to build public support, lobby lawmakers and back legislative candidates friendly to their cause.

Sanford's removal of Put Parents in Charge from his legislative agenda isn't a fatal blow, she said. "Governor Sanford's style is to throw out ideas to discuss, rather than strongly pushing and being effective with a very limited number of bills," she said.

Upchurch, a Republican, said that former GOP Gov. Carroll Campbell "would get behind a bill and strong-arm it through. But because of his different style, it's not as important that Governor Sanford put this as one of his primary focuses."