By PHILLIP RAWLS, Associated Press
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| REALLY? |
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Republican legislators on Thursday expanded a routine education bill to include tax credits for parents who move their children from failing public schools to private schools, prompting the state school superintendent to withdraw his support and a teachers' group to assail it as "totally anti-public education."
The revised version cleared the House and Senate, with Republicans voting for it and Democrats opposing it in unusually heated debate. Republican Gov. Robert Bentley said he would sign it into law, but state Superintendent of Education Tommy Bice dropped his support.
Initially, the bill was to allow city and county school systems to get approval from the state's school superintendent and school board