BATON ROUGE — A House committee on Monday rejected legislation that would have repealed an education-related income tax deduction and a credit in an effort to help colleges and universities pay for programs that would boost a workforce gap in high-demand fields.

The House Ways and Means Committee voted 12-4 to voluntarily defer House Bill 202 Rep. Mark Abraham, R-Lake Charles. While the measure was voluntarily deferred, Abraham said the bill is dead for the rest of the session.

The bill would have repealed the elementary and secondary school tuition income tax deduction and the educational expenses income tax credit.

Currently, a taxpayer can claim an $18 income tax credit for education expenses for each dependent child attending school in grades K-12. Also, taxpayers can deduct from their income tax liability the amounts paid for tuition and fees for children attending a private school or up to $5,000.

According to the bill’s fiscal note, it would have increased revenues by $32.8 million in 2018-19 and $41 million annually after that.

Abraham said half of those funds would have been used at two-year colleges, with the other going to four-year colleges and universities. He said the funding would have paid for programs to produce employees in fields like science, technology, engineering and math.

He said each college would have to provide a 25 percent match to get the funds. The Board of Regents would have monitored the jobs to determine the success of the fund.

Abraham told the committee of a “workforce gap” that the new fund could address. He said it costs about $3,000 to $4,000 to educate and train someone at a two-year college to prepare them for the workforce. Starting jobs have an average yearly pay of $44,000.

“To me this is a very good return on investment,” Abraham said. “It’s taking a different set of dollars and moving them into something that to me is very productive. I think it’s a much wiser use of money to stimulate the economy.”

Rep. Phillip DeVillier, R-Eunice, said he couldn’t support the bill because it took money away from families that “made huge sacrifices” to send their children to private school. He said the credit is beneficial because it produces more graduates.

Rob Tasman, executive director of the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops, said while creating jobs is “a noble cause,” the money should come from somewhere else. He said there are hardworking families who are doing what they can to put their children in private school.

Rep. Stephen Dwight, R-Moss Bluff, voted against the motion to voluntarily defer the bill.