Time is wasting for our Legislature to improve public education this year. The discussion about a tax credit tuition program for schools is nothing more than a diversion from the problem of how to improve our schools.

The S.C. House of Representatives is debating the issue, but in the meantime nothing is being done to improve public education, which our legislators tell us is in dire need of improvement.

The tuition tax credit plan is the hot-button topic in education this year, but it does nothing to improve public education. If public education is failing in South Carolina, a great deal of the blame must be placed on our Legislature. They did nothing the previous two sessions to help our public schools. Instead they failed to meet the financial obligations they set for funding public schools. This year the Legislature has restored some of that funding, but its efforts to provide tuition tax credits will mean another year without accomplishing any legislation that would provide meaningful improvement for our schools.

It is incredible that so many of our legislators are intent on abandoning public education in favor of an untried program that has no accountability and no real feel for the impact it will have on all areas of state government.