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Tax credit plan generates heat.

It doesn't sound controversial: give tax credits for donations to scholarship funds that allow poor kids to go to private schools.

But a plan to do that is generating a lot of heat in the state house.

Aidian Holder reports

More than a hundred people packed into a small hearing room in the capitol basement to give the House Tax Policy committee a piece of their mind about the plan.

Most were poor minorities from inner cities who say the plan offers their kids hope for a better education.

Opponents of the plan say it would give public money to private schools.

The committee is yet to vote on the plan.

SOC

A plan to give tax credits to people who donate to a scholarship fund that helps poor kids go to private schools is pitting two democratic constituincies against each other in the state house.

Aidian Holder reports.

The bill pending before the House's Tax Policy Committee would establish a nonprofit organization to give scholarships to poor kids so they can attend private or parochial schools.

Because donatiors would recieve a tax credit for donating to the scholarship fund, many educators say the bill would give public money to private schools without any oversight.

But advocates like St. Louis Representative Yaphett El-Amin say poor kids have been denied a quality education for too long.

The Committee is yet to act on the bill. SOC.