But with the end of session looming, lawmakers don't expect the bill to pass.

"Even if this bill got through the House, it would be almost impossible to get it through the Senate this late," said Rep. Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, chairman of Ways and Means. "This bill has problems. There are several things that need to be dealt with. I don't know if there's enough time to have a debate (in the House) in a way that needs to occur."

Dubbed the "Put Parents in Charge Act," the bill gives parents up to $4,600 in tax credits or scholarships, depending on their income, to offset the cost of private school tuition or home-schooling costs. To qualify, a single parent with one child could earn up to $75,000 yearly. The cap would rise by $5,000 with each additional person in the home. A family of four, for example, could earn $85,000.

People with incomes above the cap could get dollar-for-dollar tax credits by contributing to not-yet-existent Scholarship Grant-ing Organizations, which would distribute scholarships to low-income families.

Proponents argue the proposal would give parents options in where to send their children and improve education by increasing parental involvement. Opponents say it would take vital funding out of public schools to support private schools that are not required to meet the same accountability standards.

Bill Gillespie, chief economist for the state Board of Economic Advisors, estimated this week the bill would mean millions less in state and county coffers.

It would reduce state revenue by $32 million in 2005-06, the first year of a planned five-year phase-in, and $234.4 million by 2009-10, he said. Gillespie also estimated the bill would reduce local property tax revenue by $5.1 million next year and $37.8 million in 2009-10.

Harrell and House Majority Leader Rick Quinn, R-Columbia, plan to introduce amendments that would delete the ability to apply the tax credits to local property taxes. That would cut the average tax credit to about $2,500, Quinn said.

Another proposed amendment would require students benefiting from the tax credits to take state standardized tests.

"The governor is obviously disappointed in the delay," said Will Folks, spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford. "We are getting dangerously close to the crossover deadline."

After May 1, two-thirds of House members must approve the bill before it could go to the Senate for consideration. The earliest the Ways and Means Committee could debate the bill again is Tuesday.

"There's enough time to regroup. We have plenty of options left," said Larry Marchant, vice president of The Public Policy Group, a lobbying firm, and a board member of the S.C. Policy Council, a pro-school-choice conservative think tank. Marchant helped write the bill.

The S.C. Policy Council released a report last month that said the state would save $594 million over the five-year phase-in because there would be fewer students in public classrooms. The state would send that money to school districts to reimburse them for lost property taxes. It would create an economic wash, the report said.

S.C. Policy Council President Ed McMullen dismissed Gillespie's report as "government accounting" that does not take into account any savings.

The state School Boards Association and Association of School Administrators plan to release their fiscal study soon.

"I'm cautiously optimistic that means the end of it for the year," Scott Price, general counsel for S.C. School Boards Association, said of Wednesday's vote.

Bills that don't pass this year must be reintroduced next year.

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