House set to OK vouchers?

Utah House leaders said Thursday they think they have the votes to pass the perennially controversial voucher bill, marking the first time House GOP leaders have predicted passage of the measure that pits public education advocates against private school voucher supporters.

"I think I got 38 votes," a majority in the House, said House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy. The bill's sponsor, Rep. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, also predicted it would pass and he added that anti-voucher advocates are "freaked out" over the vote not going their way.

The claims come amid angry backroom battles, with both sides claiming the other is playing foul, arm-twisting politics.

"They may have 38 votes, but I think it is doubtful," countered Rep. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful, a longtime Republican moderate who has orchestrated the defeat of past voucher bills in the 75-member Utah House.

Skepticism, though cautious, also is coming from some education groups.

"We've heard that before," Utah Education Association President Kim Campbell said of vote tallies, "and it hasn't passed yet."

"If they've got 38 votes to pass it, then put down the 38 votes and pass it. That's always been the issue," said Kim Burningham, chairman of the Utah Board of Education. "We have always known that it is very, very close, evidenced by previous legislation and a number of contacts people have made ... and I do know legislators have been called in individually to apply that pressure.

"(But) I don't think you know the vote until you see the vote."

Parents for Choice in Education, the leading voucher advocacy group on Utah's Capitol Hill, agrees nothing's a slam dunk, but it is buoyed by Curtis' statement.

"I think a lot of children in Utah will be cheering, and rightly so," spokeswoman Nancy Pomeroy said. "You never know until the vote's taken. Does it look good? Yes."

The bill remains in draft form, and can be viewed through Urquhart's blog, steveu.com/blog/, for public comment.

If Urquhart's bill, which would give a private school tuition voucher worth $500 to $3,000, should pass the House — where all voucher battles have been fought before — it's anticipated that it would also pass the Senate and GOP Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. who, while not openly pushing vouchers, has said before that he supports the concept.