ST. PAUL — Minnesota Senate Republican leaders said Tuesday that a proposal to turn tax credits into scholarships for low- and middle-income students to attend private schools is a priority for them, and they hope to make it the subject of late-session negotiations with Gov. Tim Walz and House Democratic leaders.

Senate Taxes Committee Chairman Roger Chamberlain is making another run at passing the proposal, which he also pushed in 2017 until GOP leaders dropped it amid a veto threat by then-Gov. Mark Dayton. Since then, Walz, a Democratic former public school teacher, became governor and Republicans lost control of the House. Chamberlain touted it as a way to reduce the state’s large achievement gaps affecting students of color.

“Certainly the governor has a lot of proposals that we have not been agreeable to,” Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka said at a news conference, flanked by a racially diverse group of children who attend private schools. “But this is an important one to us. Negotiations at the end are a bit of give and take, and this is a high priority for us. … We’ll fight for this one. We think it matters for kids in Minnesota.”

Walz told reporters he opposes the proposal and called it “an ideological issue” for Republicans. “It will not happen,” he said, adding that they should focus on other issues instead.

Chamberlain’s committee held a hearing Tuesday and set the bill aside for possible inclusion in a larger tax bill.

Joanna Bayers, legislative director of the Minnesota Department of Revenue, which is part of his administration, testified that it would send money to private schools “at a time when the state should be funding the significant needs of the public schools.” She also said the proposal lacks accountability requirements that would enable measuring whether it produces better outcomes than public schools.

The legislation would authorize scholarships for low- and middle-income students to attend the schools of their choice. The scholarships would be funded through private donations to nonprofits, which would then grant the scholarships. Those donations would be eligible for 70-percent state income tax credits, capped at $21,000 for married joint filers, $10,500 for individual filers and $105,000 for corporations. The lost revenue to the state would be capped at $35 million a year. It’s a different funding mechanism from school vouchers, which have long faced stiff opposition in Minnesota.

Chamberlain acknowledged it will be a “tough sell” to Walz and House Democrats, but said they’ll try to convince them it won’t hurt public schools.

Eighteen other states have similar plans, he said, including neighboring Wisconsin, Iowa and South Dakota. The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld them, and he said he believes his proposal would pass muster under the state constitution. That’s because it’s based on donations from private individuals to private nonprofit funds for distribution to private institutions, he said.