South Carolina's General Assembly opens a new session today with the potential to do more harm than good.

One of the biggest drives of the session will be to funnel public money into private schools. That would harm public schools that need every ounce of support they can get. Through tax credits to parents and scholarship donors, Gov. Mark Sanford would encourage citizens to leave public schools behind, which would be a terrible mistake.

To say that public schools need competition -- like textiles need competition from China -- is a common argument that comes up empty. Public schools already have competition. Our community has a number of healthy private schools and many parents home-schooling their children. But it remains the public school system that is the measure of the community, and they need support, not detractors from within the Statehouse.

Private schools sprouted like mushrooms all over South Carolina as soon as integration belatedly became the order of the day. Has that competition improved public schools in Jasper County or Clarendon County, for example? No. Public schools do not get better when good students leave, and it would be counterproductive to write that into state law.

The legislature also should be careful with how it revamps the rules for Senate debate. There may be room for change, so that the Senate is not where about 100 bills go to die each session. But the system has worked fairly well for many years and the Senate is not supposed to be the home of fast-track legislation, like the House is. It could do more harm than good to speed up the "deliberative body."

Tort reform is another major change expected be debated in this session. That, too, could do more harm than good. The debate must be framed on facts, not anecdotes. Legislators must dig deep enough to find the true reasons for soaring medical malpractice insurance rates and a lack of doctors in some communities. They must find the true impact of malpractice costs on total health care spending. And, most of all, the legislature should do nothing to abridge the rights of the people to redress wrongs done against them.

Taxation will be on the agenda, with a number of suggestions on ways to change the current system. The governor wants to lower the state income tax rate. Legislators are solidly behind change to the local property taxes that are hitting many citizens hard as property values soar. Whatever changes are made must be made in a coordinated manner. Lowering one tax could only make another rise. Piecemeal change doesn't work in the long run. Any changes must be constitutional, and they must be fair to people of all income brackets.

The legislature could do more harm than good by tinkering with environmental protections or by usurping the rights of local governments to make local decisions.

Legislators must have the wisdom to discern when it is best to leave well enough alone.