COLUMBIA - The House gave key approval Thursday to a plan that would allow students to attend the public school of their choice, regardless of attendance boundaries.

Attempts to let students transfer to private schools, however, failed.

That marks another defeat for school-choice advocates who argue that students need help escaping failing schools, but who have been unable to pass a plan to use public funds for private schools.

"I don't stand up here and try to protect the institution of the school," said Rep. Tracy Edge, R-North Myrtle Beach. "I try to protect the choice of the child and the parent. That's most important to me."

Majority Leader Jim Merrill, R-Daniel Island, said the full House likely won't debate the issue again this session but added that school-choice advocates haven't given up.

"Anytime you try to change an institution as deeply embedded as the education establishment, you're clearly going to have opposition," Mr. Merrill said.

On a 69-53 vote, lawmakers did back the public school open-enrollment plan State Superintendent of Schools Jim Rex proposed.

Some legislators worried that the bill, in effect, might resegregate schools and that federal and local funding won't follow a student who opts to attend a different school district, leaving that district to find a way to make up the funding difference.

Rep. Jim Stewart, R-Aiken, also believes the bill gives school administrators too much leeway to decide which out-of-area students to accept.

"If there's only room for five kids, what five kids get to go?" Mr. Stewart asked.

The bill still needs a third reading before heading to the Senate.

Opponents of the private-school options got a special assist Thursday.

Rep. James Smith, D-Columbia, training at Fort Riley, Kan., before heading to Afghanistan later this spring, was granted leave to fly back for the vote.

"I called him last night and told him to, 'Get home. We need your vote,'" House Minority Leader Harry Ott, D-St. Matthews, said.

In a statement, Gov. Mark Sanford called the open-enrollment bill significant because it shows that the school choice debate is progressing.

He added, however, "Until you have full-blown choice between public and private educational options, we're not going to have a vibrant educational marketplace, and we're not going to have the needed improvement that comes with that vibrant marketplace."