The perennial bill to give parents vouchers to send their children to private schools is wilting, and its chances for bloom in the Legislature's last three days is in serious doubt.

HB184 languished on the House's to-do list Friday afternoon. Sponsoring Rep. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, said he'll probably leave the bill hanging there the rest of the session.

"This needs to stay a policy issue," Adams said. "I won't run it if I don't have the votes."

Finding $13 million to pay for the program also might be tough this late in the session, he said.

This likely ends the sixth consecutive attempt to secure vouchers, or the similar tuition tax credits, to help parents pay for private school tuition. To date, the concept has been held up in the House every year but one.

"It doesn't look really promising at this point," said Elisa Clements Peterson, executive director of Parents for Choice in Education.

HB184 would offer vouchers worth $500 to $3,500, based on family income, to families of students switching from public to private schools or low-income students currently in private schools. Parents would use the money to pay for private-school tuition.

The bill would give $13.3 million in general funds, not dedicated school funds, to pay for the vouchers in the first year.

School districts would receive some of their state per-student dollars for voucher students, and the rest of those per-student dollars would go into an account to benefit districts proving they were financially hurt by vouchers.

"If we can allow people choice, and not hurt public education . . . then it's good policy," Adams said.

But, Adams lamented, the bill has become more about politics than policy.

House members are mindful their votes could be rewarded or punished by either of the opposing political action committees: the pro-voucher Parents for Choice in Education, or anti-voucher Utah Education Association. Both acknowledge they're seeking sympathetic candidates for the November election, be they incumbents or challengers. In the 2004 election year, Parents for Choice spent more than $322,000, and the UEA spent just under $270,000, online PAC reports show.

Even though a House vote this year is unlikely, both groups know where representatives stand. The House took its first vote on the matter last year, when the bill narrowly failed, putting everyone on record. The Senate voted for the concept a few years back.

"The politics are a very clear reality for most of the legislators. While we hope they vote on the policy, we understand that reality," Peterson said. "We realize there needs to be a political organization that can support candidates who have the courage to . . . stand up for the rights of parents to choose."

UEA President Pat Rusk, however, says voucher legislation will never be free of politics, because that's all it is.

"This is a national agenda. That's what it's always been about . . . every year, there's a different spin on it to try and make it palatable," she said. "If (HB184) comes out, it will be because the Parents for Choice group wants the bill to come out so they have a head count for the election. My preference would be that the bill doesn't come out."

House Speaker Greg Curtis said he supports HB184, but would leave it up to the sponsor to bring it out for debate or let it die.

"This is a tough vote for a lot of people," he said. "My attitude is, I'm ready to have the debate, and let's see where it goes."

But that probably isn't going to happen.

The House will debate Senate bills in the last three days of the session, which ends at the stroke of midnight Wednesday. While the House can call evening sessions to debate House bills, Curtis said HB184 won't be among them.

"I doubt it would actually be run next week," Curtis said.