Legislation to let disabled students attend private schools on public vouchers cleared a key House committee Thursday with a little help from top House leaders, setting up a highly-anticipated floor vote on the controversial measure.

Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson and his speaker pro tem, state Rep. Mark Burkhalter, R-Duluth, stood quietly in the back of the committee room as members of the House Committee on Education voted for Senate Bill 10.

State Sen. Eric Johnson, the bill's sponsor, said he'd heard the Speaker was in the room - which is a bit unusual at the committee level - and Johnson wanted to show appreciation for the support.

That came just one day after Johnson, R-Savannah, insinuated that Richardson and his cohorts in the House were holding his bill hostage as part of an ongoing House-Senate feud over the state budget.

"I wanted to stay abreast of all the issues ... indicate a little support for Senator Johnson," Richardson said after the successful vote.

"Made me feel good," Johnson said of that support.

The voucher bill now heads to the House Committee on Rules, where it must be placed on the calendar before the full House of Representatives can debate it.

That would have to happen between now and next Friday, when the 2007 session of the Georgia General Assembly is scheduled to end, for the bill to move this year.

Johnson said he expects a fight on the floor, but the bill should at least get there, in part because rules chairman state Rep. Earl Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, is "a very strong supporter."

The bill would allow disabled children to apply for taxpayer-financed vouchers to leave their current school and attend another one, public or private.

Johnson and other bill supporters have said repeatedly that parents need that freedom of choice.

Opponents have said the bill doesn't have enough safeguards built in to make sure the schools they choose are good ones, and that the measure will suck money out of public school systems.

An amendment was added to the bill Thursday that allows the vouchers to be used out of state.

In some border communities, families may want to send their children to schools in, for example, Chattanooga, Tenn., or Jacksonville, Fla., Johnson said.

Even with the Speaker looking on, the vote was close: 12-9.

Two Middle Georgians are on the committee, and state Rep. Willie Talton, R-Warner Robins, voted for the bill.

State Rep. Tony Sellier, R-Fort Valley, voted against it.

Sellier said he met with every school board in his district, and no one supported the measure.

He also said that transportation to and from school may be a problem for voucher students, since those costs aren't included in the vouchers.

"My constituents are in total disagreement ... and I promised them I would vote their will," Sellier said.

As for voting against the Speaker as he watched, particularly as a freshman legislator, Sellier said "it was hard."