COLUMBIA --- Gov. Mark Sanford vetoed legislation that would have exempted school districts from making up snow days this year, saying less time in the classroom is no way to solve budget problems.

Mr. Sanford rejected two bills this week that would waive the state requirement that schools make up days missed because of extreme weather. One applies to Pickens County schools, where students stayed home March 2 as up to 10 inches of snow fell.

The other bill initially applied to a handful of Kershaw County schools that closed Feb. 4 for snow. But legislators expanded it to allow any district to close for up to three days without making it up. At least seven other school districts had asked legislators to exempt them from making up their snow days.

"Allowing school districts to simply shut down for three days may save on some transportation and food services costs, but ... doing so will come at the expense of reducing valuable instructional days for students," Mr. Sanford wrote in his veto message, signed Wednesday. He pointed out districts must set aside three days to make up classroom time missed for inclement weather.

Sen. Larry Martin said he'd normally agree, but this is no ordinary year. He noted kindergarten-12 education has taken $387 million in cuts since July and could see more reductions if Mr. Sanford continues to reject $700 million in federal stimulus cash that could help plug schools' budget holes over the next two years.

"This will ease some of the sting in the budget cuts as we approach the end of the fiscal year," the Pickens Republican said Thursday. "This year of all years we could justify doing it."