COLUMBIA - A Charleston legislator filed a House bill this week that would uproot the board of S.C. Educational Television because it is airing a documentary critical of public funding for schools.

Rep. John Graham Altman's bill calls for removal of the current seven-member board. The measure would allow the governor to appoint replacements, but the Charleston Republican's bill says the General Assembly would have to approve them.

Altman's bill was filed after ETV decided to air statewide a 58-minute documentary "Corridor of Shame," which shows crumbling walls, leaky roofs, faulty fire alarms and unheated classrooms.

Those conditions were part of testimony in a 101-day trial targeting the legislature for inadequate public school spending.

Producers raised $75,000 from some of the state's biggest Republican and Democrat philanthropists for the documentary. They're distributing DVDs and videos to the state's 170 legislators, Gov. Mark Sanford and community leaders across the state.

"ETV was never viewed as a propaganda arm," Altman said. "I just hate to see ETV get involved in all this," he said. "When it airs these advocacy shows, it places its stamp of approval on them."

The film is a "point-of-view documentary," ETV President Moss Bresnahan said. Both sides of the rural-school funding issue will be discussed in the 90-minute package, which includes a half-hour panel discussion after the documentary runs, he said.

"I don't think it's any more of an advocacy piece than other programs we do," Bresnahan said.

"It's really not a political film. It's got bipartisan support," said ETV Chairman Robert Rainey, who also contributed to the documentary's production costs.

If Altman's bill became law, ETV's programming would be controlled "by the majority party in the legislature," Rainey said.

In November, Altman complained about "We are your Neighbors," a documentary on gays in the South, which aired as ETV's twice-monthly Southern Lens series.

"They were actively promoting homosexuality as an OK thing to do," Altman said at the time.

Other bills with Altman as primary sponsor this year include: creating a trespassing offense for illegal immigrants, who would face a $10,000 fine and three-year prison term; allowing teachers and guidance counselors to suspend students for five days; letting the state issue "Choose Life" and "Choose Abortion" license plates; and a tougher law to ban same-sex unions.