Any state lawmaker unsure of how much support there is for the Put Parents In Charge act only had to look outside a Statehouse window Tuesday. A crowd of supporters estimated by organizers at 4,000 rallied in front of the Statehouse in support of the bill, which would offer state tax credits to low- and middle-income families to send their children to another public school, a private school or home school.

"Something must be done before we fail another generation of kids, and we're here today to deliver that message," said Tom Swatzel, president of South Carolinians for Responsible Government, a group that's pushing the Put Parents In Charge act.

He also commented on the diversity of the crowd, made up of black and white, children, parents and grandparents. Some are home-schoolers while others attend private schools, with all areas of the state represented.

Marnie Drummond home-schooled two children now in college and is still teaching her three other children. "I really don't need the tax credit," she says. "I'm just here to support the bill because I think it would help the whole education process in South Carolina." 

She says competition would be good for public schools, because they would try harder to meet the needs of students who might leave and take some of the school's funding with them.

The way the plan works is parents would get a tax credit of $3,200. Schools would still get the rest of the per-pupil spending for students that leave.

Critics of PPIC say it would drain hundreds of millions of dollars from our public schools,which are already underfunded. But supporters point out that schools would still get about two-thirds of the money they now get for a student that would no longer be there, raising the per-pupil spending at the school.

Jannie Gist's daughter attends private Union Christian Day School. "I don't think it will hurt the public schools. I think there's enough money to go around and I don't think it's going to hurt them one bit," she says.

Critics also say the $3,200 tax credit wouldn't be enough to pay for most private schools. We took that question to Gov. Mark Sanford, who started the push for the bill.

"Well that's just flat-out not true. If you look at the average tuition of private schools in South Carolina, the number's right around $4,000," he says. A Clemson study found that average private tuition for kindergarten is $3,232, grades 1-4 is $4,092, grades 5-8 is $4,317 and grades 9-12 is $4,702.

Looking at those figures raises another question critics have. How can a low-income family afford to pay for private school tuition out of their own pockets, then wait until the following year to get a tax credit?

"That is the whole idea behind the scholarship granting organizations," says Gov. Sanford. "And what that would do would be to provide direct dollars, not a tax credit, but a direct scholarship for low-income families."

Businesses and individuals would qualify for a tax credit for donating money to charitable organizations, which would then offer scholarships to low-income families, he explains.