Tuition tax credit and voucher advocates, a few opponents and several lawmakers gathered at a school choice conference Monday — one week before the curtain rises on the 2005 Legislature and what advocates are calling the best chance "school choice" bills have had in years.

Sponsored by Education Excellence Utah, the conference featured speakers from Harvard, the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation, and the State Assembly of Wisconsin, home to the Milwaukee school choice program, heralded by advocates as a national model of having the state help pay to educate some students in private schools.

Former assembly speaker Scott Jensen said the program saves his state money and has improved education and lifted choice students' graduation rates above even the most elite area public schools.

"(In Milwaukee) it doesn't matter where you were born," Jensen said. "You can go to the school that will transform your life."

Utah lawmakers are expected to debate the school choice issue for the fifth consecutive year.

They likely will debate setting aside $1.4 million for private school vouchers for parents of students with disabilities. Carson Smith Special Needs Scholarships, vetoed last session and made a huge issue in the governor's race, will be carried by Rep. Merlynn Newbold, R-South Jordan.

Lawmakers also will see a bill giving up to a $2,000 tuition tax credit. The measure comes as public schools face educating 140,000 new students in less than a decade, said sponsoring Rep. Jim Ferrin, R-Orem. He might target the credit at poor families and set aside money to make sure school districts come out even.

A state-commissioned study conducted by two Utah State University professors indicated a tuition tax credit could save the state money; a group of economists and academics has challenged that finding.

Opponents, including the Utah Education Association, believe tuition tax credits are philosophically a bad idea for Utah. They bank on them draining public school dollars.

Advocates believe this could be school choice's big year. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. is "open to (Ferrin's) initiative," which he called "something I'm going to continue to look at, along with the Carson Smith special needs bill."

His comments came at the Utah Taxpayers Association's pre-legislative conference Monday.

Some lawmakers express interest in Ferrin's bill.

"I really want to give it a try," said Sen. Carlene Walker, R-Sandy, who wants the bill targeted at low-income families and with a public school bailout fund. "As long as we're holding public education harmless, let's go for it."

Walker was among about 100 conference attendees. So were known tuition tax credit and voucher opponents.

"I'm a middle-of-the-roader," State Board of Education member Gary Swensen said. "I don't know (my position) yet. . . . I'm just getting educated."

---

Contributing: Lisa Riley Roche

E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com