WE’VE SEEN THIS BEFORE — a governor proposing to take from the poor to give a handout to a group of voters who don’t need it, under the guise of promoting education for all.

Gov. Jim Hodges offered middle-class parents lottery-funded state scholarships. The money wasn’t needed for that purpose — the Beasley administration had already put a scholarship line in the general fund. Spending lottery money on scholarships did virtually nothing to help K-12 schools, and it did very little to increase lower-income students’ access to college, both of which would have been better uses of a windfall. In the end, the lottery wasn’t about our schools. It was a tactic to try to buy support for re-election from the middle-class families whose children were most likely to qualify for the scholarships — using money from the poor, who are most likely to play the lottery.

Now, we see Gov. Mark Sanford and other private- and home-school advocates doing something very similar. They are pushing a plan to help out virtually the same demographic groups with a financial windfall dressed up in dubious educational claims. Their vehicle is the tax credit bill known as “Put Parents in Charge.”

The measure is billed as a way to increase access to private schools for the needy. In truth, the $2,000 to $3,000 tax credit isn’t enough to do that for families who can’t afford private school tuition now. And it takes money from the public schools the poor rely on.

Come 2010, any pretense that this bill is about new private school students is gone. That is when the tax credit is opened up for all students currently in private, parochial or home schools, as well as some students transferring between public schools. If you are already supporting such an operation at home, or through tuition, then this tax break will in fact seem like a big favor from someone. While such voters won’t have the money in hand yet, they know who’s pushing to get it for them, and are likely to be grateful in 2006.

That may be why so much of the support for this bill seems to come from people who are not even involved in the public schools. It could be why advocates seem so unaware of the sweeping public education reform efforts already under way. Consider, for example, the thousands of home-schoolers who turned out in support of Put Parents in Charge at a State House rally. No wonder — this bill offers the first significant financial reward ever contemplated for home-schoolers in our state. If lawmakers want to debate such assistance, then let them do so, straight up. But don’t do it under the guise of a bill purporting to improve public education. That is as great a lie as the claim we were starting an “education lottery.”

Parents should be free to choose whatever type of education they believe is appropriate for their children — public, private, parochial or home school. Other taxpayers do not, however, have to subsidize choices that are not open and accountable to the public.

To read all of the series thus far, go to http://www.thestate.com/, click on “Opinion,” then on “Our Children, Our Schools.”