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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A plan to help parents pay for private schools with taxpayer-supported vouchers is headed to the House for a floor debate.
House Bill 181 would offer vouchers worth $500 to $3,500, based on family income, to students switching from public to private schools or low-income students already in private schools. Parents would have to use the money to pay for private-school tuition. The bill gained the endorsement of the House Education Committee Friday.
This is the sixth year in a row the Utah Legislature has debated private school vouchers. The current bill aims to reduce opposition to the idea by offsetting losses in public school revenue.
A new poll shows most Utah residents oppose vouchers. Forty-two percent surveyed by Dan Jones & Associates said they strongly or somewhat favor voucher legislation, while 53 percent somewhat or strongly oppose the legislation. Four percent said they didn't know.
The survey of 415 Utah adults, conducted Feb. 14-16 for the Deseret Morning News and KSL-TV, has a 5 percent error margin.
The State Board of Education, historically against the idea of vouchers, couldn't come up with the eight votes needed to take a position on the bill. Seven voted to oppose the bill; four voted to support it. Four more were absent.
A voucher plan failed in the House last year by five votes, while the Senate passed the measure.
"What will happen on the floor? It's going to be a very close vote," said Royce Van Tassell, spokesman for Parents for Choice in Education, a leading lobbying group for HB184.
Sponsored by Rep. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, the bill would give $13.3 million in general funds, not dedicated school funds, to pay for the vouchers in the first year, and $14.2 million the next.
School districts, which receive state money based on how many students they have, also could count voucher recipients in their enrollment for up to five years and keep a portion of those students' education dollars, with the amount based on the number and value of the vouchers distributed.
Meanwhile, the rest of those students' education dollars would go into a reserve account to go out to school districts if their budgets are insufficient to maintain operations because of the vouchers.
The legislative fiscal analyst estimates up to $8.6 million in the first year and $9.2 million the second might be diverted into that reserve account. Leftover reserves would go back into the state's education fund.
"I look at education as an entire system ... both private and public education. This is an effort to make both private and public education stronger," Adams said.
Rep. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, said the bill essentially gives education a $13 million boost statewide.
Supporters also praised the bill for helping parents.
"There is no one teacher, no one school and no one system that can meet all the complex and diverse needs of each child," said Cindy Taylor, principal of the Heritage Foundation School and a Box Elder County resident. "But a community united in such a cause can."
Opponents say public dollars should benefit public, not private, schools.
"I do believe this is a new entitlement program. It doesn't offer parents any new choice; it simply says who will pay for that choice," said Pat Rusk, president of the Utah Education Association.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
