BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) -- A bill that would allow Louisiana parents to use tax dollars to pay to send their children to private school passed the state Senate on Thursday.

Lawmakers passed Senate Bill 313, authored by state Sen. Rick Edmonds (R-Baton Rouge) with a 24-15 vote. It now heads to the Louisiana House.

"For too long our education system has ranked near the bottom, but today we took the first step toward changing that," Edmonds said.

The bill called the Louisiana Giving All True Opportunity to Rise (LA GATOR) Scholarship Program would allow the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to create an educational savings account program.

Parents would be able to use tax dollars to send their children to private schools. According to the bill, funding would be first available for low-income students.

"This is a major step towards ensuring school choice, and empowering parents to choose the learning environments that align with their values and work best for their children," Gov. Jeff Landry said after the Thursday Senate vote.

The governor spoke with parents and community members at Thursday town halls in Mandeville and Metairie about education savings accounts. He said the program would cost $1.8 million to start and another $50 million if all families eligible in the first phase wanted to participate.

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