an old battle is rearing its head again at the state house over whether the state should use taxpayer funds to pay for students to attend private schools if approved the new legislation would pay out up to $37 million in tax credits a year to Residents who donate to organizations supporting those private schools critics call it a school voucher for the rich while proponents tell senior political correspondent David Cruz they're looking for new ways to support the state's school-aged kids when is a school voucher Bill not a school voucher Bill well according to the sponsor of the New Jersey student support act it's not anything that's just out there and I and I Folly reject anyone that says it's a voucher bill because it's not but critics are saying a school voucher bill by any other name would still be a school voucher Bill there are different versions different names for vouchers but they're all different names for the same thing which is diverting public funds to to pay for private education expenses let's call it a tax credit funding mechanism for our purposes today a bill that would give families a tax credit of up to 75% of their contributions to organizations that fund scholarships for private and religious schools gives parents more say in where their child goes to school meeting the needs of families who choose them for special needs or cultural or religious preferences like the schools represented by teach andj a pack which poured money and endorsements into the backers of the bill Dan Mitzner is director of government Affairs for the teach Coalition of which teach andj is a member what this bill does is that it creates a it creates a grant program for for uh Public Schools um and it also creates a tax credit program so that people can get scholarships um through uh through donations um and at and it does not actually uh pull any funds away from the public schools at all but Dan you say that money goes to the public schools but a that just got written into the bill number one um and and B I know that you guys didn't go out there saying hey let's find a way to fund Public Schools I mean you're just kind of spinning me right now no I'm not spinning you the bottom line is we've had numerous conversations with all sorts of people from across the spectrum of of the political spectrum and we're trying to find a program that impacts students um most at need the bill isn't in front of any committees yet Senate sponsor Vin goal notes that it's already undergone some changes it's shrunk from a $250 million program to 37 million it also now calls for 50% of the funds generated to go to existing public schools by the way you need to take a tax credit from somewhere to create funds right so we're going to take 50% of a tax credit off a nonp public parent and we're creating a program in doe for our poorest school districts with the highest free and reduced lunch uh for tutoring programs for uh uh free and reduced lunch uh for for um teacher retention programs for mental health for a lot of different things could we do that off a tax credit off other corporations other areas if they choose to want to give to public school sure I think those are all good conversations we should have these are essential educational resources that the state is required to make sure public schools have it is unconscionable to attach them to the passage of a private school voucher bill the bill would be a boon to New Jersey's growing Orthodox Jewish Community which has lobbied strongly for it they will have to battle the state's teachers union and almost two dozen other groups aligned against it for the hearts and minds and eventually the votes of State lawmakers I'm David Cruz NJ Spotlight news