HB39 would give a $500 to $3,750 tax credit, based on family income, to parents sending kids to private schools. All public schoolchildren, and low-income current private school families, would be eligible.

The House Rules Committee forwarded the bill to the House's to do list Monday.

"This is a critical time to put parents back in charge," Parents for Choice in Education Doug Holmes told ralliers, who included Utah Republican Party Chairman Joe Cannon and, via a letter, GOP Congressman and schoolteacher Rob Bishop. "We've got to expand this movement to bring about the positive change that this (bill) will."

But Democratic leaders in an earlier press briefing called tuition tax credits a way to avoid funding public schools.

All income tax revenues benefit education in Utah, which spends the least per-student in the country. Tuition tax credit fiscal impacts greatly vary by assumption on how many might participate, Democrats said. HB39's fiscal note foresees a $3.4 million state savings in the first year and a more than $130,000 loss in the second.

"It's all a gamble," said Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Holladay, "and it's a gamble that's not worth the risk for our kids."

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