Educators and their allies were bewildered Wednesday by a Senate recommendation to strip the state's school reform agency of its funding, a move that they say questions the merit of tracking academic progress.

During a marathon budget-writing session Tuesday, the Senate voted 32-10 to redistribute $1.4 million currently spent on the Education Oversight Committee to other education needs.

The agency, and its duties mandated by the Legislature, would continue to exist on paper, but with no employees.

"We didn't see this coming," said Bob Staton, chairman of the agency's oversight panel. "Our work is not done."

Senators are struggling to reduce the cost of state government and write a balanced budget for next year. With money in short supply, proponents of cutting expenses said they believe the oversight agency's responsibilities could be shifted to the state Department of Education.

Staton was among business leaders who lobbied for new teaching standards and a rigorous testing program.

The aim was to create a uniform way to gauge students' academic strengths and weaknesses.

The result was adoption of the 1998 Education Accountability Act. It included creation of an oversight panel that draws members from business, education and the Legislature.

"If the vote holds, that will destroy the EAA," said Rep. Bobby Harrell, a Charleston Republican who helped write the reform law.

The oversight agency monitors compliance with that law, conducts studies to identify academic failings, recommends strategies to overcome the problems and coordinates promotion of parental involvement in their children's schools.

Jo‘Anne Anderson, the agency's director, said reviews of testing effectiveness would be costly if the function had to be farmed out to consultants.

About $478,000 of the $1.4 million is spent on salaries, Anderson said. The remainder pays for office operations, computers and technology and underwriting the cost of conducting the analysis of testing and other data used in policy-making decisions.

Just last week, about 330,000 children in grades three through eight completed work on Palmetto Achievement Challenge Tests. Results get tabulated and compared to grading method created by the Education Oversight Committee, which also designed annual report cards that tell parents how neighborhood schools measure up to state expectations.

Harrell said he was troubled by the Senate's vote and vowed to fight for restoration of the agency's funding.

"We've begun to make serious gain in academic achievement, and this would potentially stop that in its tracks," said Harrell, a member of the oversight panel that supervises the agency.

Sen. Mike Fair, also an oversight panel member, said he regretted voting with the majority. He said he and several colleagues realized they misunderstood the proposal after the vote occurred.

"They're doing some function with accountability and tweaking what's necessary, doing the follow-up in the field," the Greenville Republican said. "You could call it 'accountability oversight.' The function has to be performed."

Spartanburg businessman Bill Barnet, who helped shape the reform legislation and served as the oversight panel's first chairman, said "it would be terribly short-sighted to dismantle" the agency.

"If we fail to stay the course and support the education advancement goals we set for ourselves, I fear we will do irreparable harm to the progress we've made," he said.

Staton visited the State House on Wednesday looking for an answer to one question: "Do people have issues with the EOC?"

"I didn't hear any complaints about the work we've done, or what we're doing," he said.

Hunter Howard, president of the S.C. Chamber of Commerce, said dissolving the oversight agency would erode support business leaders lend to the school reform movement.

"This is a mechanism for getting educators and businesses involved in the oversight of important change that's needed," Howard said. "If the EOC goes away, it takes us away from the table."

Added Staton, "my biggest fear is we could not continue to do the positive things we're doing. We'd start to slip back. We can't let that happen."