In his recent State of the State Address, Gov. Mark Sanford, after noting that families in Milwaukee shed “tears of joy” when their children were accepted into the school choice system, asked ironically, “Can you imagine tears being shed because you got into the public school in Allendale or Marion?” In a word, “yes.” I can imagine that, because I chose to put my children there.

As a Marion resident for the past 11 years and a school board member for Marion District 1 for the past two years, I can attest to the joy Marion schools bring daily to the students they serve. Our teachers, administrators and staff work hard to provide the best possible education for district students.

There is no denying that test scores in the county are a concern, particularly in our most disadvantaged district, Marion 7. By any measure (SAT, PACT etc.), we are not where we want to be. So we share Sanford’s desire for improvement. We just disagree about the causes of and the solutions for our children’s performance.

Marion 1’s greatest disadvantage is that our students are mostly poor (76 percent of our students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch), and they go home to parents who may be unable or unwilling to give them the support they need. A substantial number of our parents are not literate enough to read to their younger children or help older ones with homework. Some students go home to one overwhelmed parent. Some go home to none at all.

Our job at Marion 1 is to uphold the trust that public education represents between our government and its youngest citizens. They come to us as they are — by Mercedes or bus; wearing expensive new clothes or hand-me-downs; bellies full of eggs and grits or hollow; articulate or barely able to speak — and we jump right in and get to work. We don’t have the option to refuse; we don’t want to refuse — we just want to get the job done.

I have seen enough public school teachers at work to know that a tears-of-joy moment is what they live for. Public school teachers don’t do it for the money. They certainly don’t do it for the glory. They do it for those “eureka” moments when they see that light shining in a pair of previously dim eyes.

For Sanford to denigrate the effort of the teachers in struggling districts in this state, for him to imply that our students are prisoners who need most of all to be delivered from ineffective, uncaring teachers, is as ludicrous as it is insulting.

The bottom line is that our schools are shackled by poverty, not by complacency. Sanford imagines all of us in Marion 1 have been stupefied by our virtual monopoly on education and that all we need is a little competition to be jolted out of it. But in Marion, as in most rural counties, the only options beside the public schools are small private schools (many created as segregation academies in the ’60s and ’70s) and even smaller Christian schools.

When my wife and I moved to Marion in 1993, we considered our options, between Marion 1 and a small private academy, and chose Marion 1 for our children. We have not been disappointed. Although the private school is a fine institution, it was small enough that it could not provide the same range of opportunities. And it certainly isn’t prepared to deal as effectively with students with special needs as Marion 1. How a small private school is supposed to rescue the roughly 5,600 children in Marion County who, in Sanford’s opinion, are in need of deliverance is anyone’s guess.

I challenge Gov. Sanford to come to Marion and see the schools of Marion 1 that he dismissed in his speech. Let him visit Easterling Primary, one of the most-honored primary schools in the state, with recognition as a Blue Ribbon school. Let him visit Marion Intermediate School, which won the S.C. Chamber of Commerce’s High Performance Partnership of the Year Award for its partnership with the Beneteau USA plant in Marion.

Governor, you’ve visited Milwaukee. How about a trip to Marion? Come with an open mind, and I think we can convince you that what our students need most is not a tax credit but fully funded public schools and a governor who understands and supports public education.

Dr. DeMarco is a general internist in Marion and serves on the school board of Marion District 1.