TODAY IS THE traditional demarcation between life and death in the South Carolina General Assembly. After May 1, it becomes much harder for bills that haven’t passed one chamber or the other to become law.

And that means that public school supporters are breathing a sigh of relief, if only a temporary one, over the likely failure, for now, of a bill known as “Put Parents in Charge.”

Last week, lawmakers voted to adjourn debate on the bill, which would give tax credits to parents who move their children out of public schools. It is good this destructive idea hit the skids prior to the May 1 deadline. But that doesn’t mean that damage hasn’t been done to public education.

Put Parents in Charge has served as an unwelcome distraction from the public school reform that should be better supported by our lawmakers. In addition, the time devoted to this bill squandered another opportunity for lawmakers to address the most pressing issue in our public schools — the inequity of opportunity for schoolchildren based on where they live.

Our rural school districts don’t have the tax bases to keep up with their urban and suburban peers. Children in poor rural schools get substandard facilities and materials, less experienced or poorly qualified teachers. Some of those rural districts grew so frustrated by their plight that they sued. That action took 10 years to get where it is today — the plaintiffs await a judge’s ruling. And in that time and more, lawmakers did practically nothing to address the equity issue.

This year, a few lawmakers and the governor instead pushed the idea of paying people to desert the public schools. They have used out-of-state money and slick publicity to try to fool South Carolinians into believing tax credits help public schools and poor people.

You don’t improve public schools by taking away their more affluent and motivated students and parents — or their state funding. You don’t help poor people by giving businesses and middle-class people tax breaks. You help all people, rich and poor, by building the strongest possible public school system for all South Carolinians. Not everyone will choose to use the public schools, and that’s fine. But the system is a public asset that must be strong for everyone who does choose to use it, even if that choice comes because the local public school is the only affordable option for poor families (as it would still be under the tax credit plan).

This latest turn of events gives true leaders in our state a way to get back on task. It is still possible that “Put Parents in Charge” will come to a vote this year. Should that happen, the House should quickly vote it down. And true leaders should begin work right away to build consensus behind ideas that are guaranteed to help public schools.

Lawmakers should ensure the Education Accountability Act is fully funded. The dwindling number of schools that remain unsatisfactory under the act’s rating system need, deserve and were promised assistance. Lawmakers could also free up money for all classrooms by adopting one measure guaranteed to cut down on administrative waste: district consolidation.

There is no reason for “Put Parents in Charge” to remain the distraction that it has been. Lawmakers have every reason now to return to the only wise course: backing real public education reform in South Carolina.