In fact, the House held up a general private school voucher or tuition tax credit since 2000. Its only vote came in 2005, a time advocates thought the bill was in the bag. The House voted against the bill, 34-to-40, a win for GOP moderates and Democrats.

The issue is part of the Republican Party platform.

This year, Urquhart, now chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee, said he is working out the details with Dee, who is now the House majority assistant whip, and House Majority Whip Gordon Snow, R-Roosevelt.

"The (House) speaker has asked us to meet together to talk about vouchers. The three of us are in leadership, and I think he believes we would approach it from a few different angles," Urquhart said. "I'm pretty antsy to get it working through the process just so people can look at it and give their input."

He expects the bill will be made public within a week.

Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble also is in on the drafting, and said he plans to carry it in the Senate — if it gets that far.

"We feel fairly confident we could pass a bill in the Senate, but we want to find a bill that has broader appeal than just the Senate," Bramble said.

Bramble was among five public officials who, shepherded by Parents for Choice in Education, visited Milwaukee last month to examine its voucher program, touted as a model by advocates. The trip was paid for by the Milton & Rose D. Friedman Foundation, Pomeroy said. The idea was to help legislators understand how the program works.

"It was just basically education," Pomeroy said.

Others attending were Rep. Craig Frank, R-Pleasant Grove, newly elected Reps. Sylvia Andersen, R-Sandy, and Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, and State Board of Education member Richard Moss. All had received campaign money from Parents for Choice in Education.

"They have a nice, well-crafted choice education system back there," Frank said of Milwaukee. "Utah's education system is different to some degree from Milwaukee's, but we have a lot of similarities here."

Voucher opponents have been invited in the past, and state board chairman Kim Burningham has attended. This time, though, Parents for Choice invited only public officials they knew "were at least open-minded to school choice," Pomeroy said. "They invited others in the past, and they just shut them down ... they realized it was a waste of time."

She did say a teachers trip, however, is in the making for later in the year.

The Utah Education Association, often pitted against the pro-voucher group, hasn't heard of the trip. Its chief of government relations and political action Vik Arnold also was curious about the group inviting legislators already apparently sold on the idea.

"Some of the legislators they took last year who might be considered more swing votes, or undecideds, came back and reported that while vouchers in Milwaukee have achieved some measure of success, that is was obvious that Utah public schools have very little in common with Milwaukee public schools," Arnold said. "They didn't feel like the Milwaukee experience was very relevant to voucher proposals for Utah schools."

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E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com