During the legislative session that ended last week, many bills and proposals were hotly contested.

Such bills that saw much debate were SB 34 and SB 154, education reform bills that included a proposal to reimburse families that pay for their children to attend private schools.

In the end though, legislators killed the tuition tax credit proposals in the bills.

It was the third defeat in as many years for tax tuition proposal.

However, the debate is far from over.

"I'll be back again strong," said Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan. Buttars sponsored the tuition tax credit for the past two years.

"I'm not going to let something go that's as right as this," he said.

"It's the foundation of reforms - giving authority back to the parents, giving them the fiscal power to seek the best education for their children," he said. "Why do we believe this education bureaucracy can do that? It's hard to break a 100-year monopoly."

However, many educators were and are opposed to the tuition tax credit proposal.

"The people who this bill is targeted after aren't going to use it because either the parents really don't care, or they work two jobs and don't have time to look for another school, or don't speak English or are disadvantaged or are just passive," said Pat Mosbacker, 25, a senior majoring in English teaching from Sandy. Mosbacker is currently student teaching at Oak Hill Elementary School.

The push from legislators to make the tuition tax credits available to families stems in part from a study by The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research on parental freedom in public education.

The study, released in January 2002, ranked Utah as 49th out of 50 states, ahead of only Hawaii.

Hawaii only has one school district.

"Utah offers no assistance for private school choice, closely regulates home-schooling, and has large school districts and weak charter-school offerings," the study reports.

However, the state can solve the problem by building more schools and hiring more teachers, which would make classes smaller and teaching more effective, Mosbacker said.

While the issue of tuition tax credits has died this legislative season, it will certainly come back to life again next December.
Copyright Brigham Young University 10 Mar 2003