On the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that may help pave the way, a South Portland legislator said Tuesday he plans to co-sponsor a voucher bill next year.

Rep. Kevin Glynn, a Republican, said he is working with a group of about 30 people, including legislators, educators, parents and members of the Maine School Choice Coalition, hoping to draft “one quality piece of legislation” for the next legislative session, which begins in January.

Details of the bill should be worked out by the end of the summer, said Glynn, who has unsuccessfully sponsored other voucher-type bills in the past few years.

He is the first legislator to step forward in the wake of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that said taxpayer money can be used to send students to private schools, including religious institutions.

Because Maine has a law banning the use of public funds to pay tuition at sectarian schools, Attorney General Steven Rowe said last week that the Department of Education and local school districts “should continue to consider sectarian schools ineligible for public tuition payments until the Legislature or the courts mandate otherwise.”

Glynn is hoping that his yet-to-be-drafted bill will spur the Legislature to make that change.

One of his previous bills would have allowed children to go from one public school to another, regardless of whether they stay in their district. State aid would have followed the child under the bill proposed during the 119th Legislature.

His latest bill, introduced this year, “got around all the constitutional issues” because it wasn’t an actual voucher program, Glynn said.

The bill would have allowed an income tax credit for people who sent their children to a public or private school – religious or otherwise.

“It was a different way to skin the cat,” he said.

The proposal didn’t make it out of committee because of the state’s revenue shortfall, according to Glynn. “The last thing the taxation committee wanted to see was an idea to give anyone a tax refund,” he said.

Glynn said the new proposal could incorporate pieces from his previous bills.

While he had intended to pursue a voucher bill yet a third time, Glynn said the high court’s decision definitely should help the cause.

The ruling “opened up a lot of avenues and opportunities for parents … to [pursue their] dream and provide for their child the way they want to,” he said.

Glynn is running for a third House term against William Collins, a Democrat from South Portland.

In Maine, thousands of students in small towns that don’t have public schools receive state funds to send their children to public and private schools elsewhere. But since 1981, state law has forbidden the use of public money to pay tuition at religious schools.

“Right now, the only people that have the option of sending their children to private school are people of financial means,” Glynn said. “I don’t believe a child should be limited by parents’ earning potential.”

Opponents of vouchers, such as the National Education Association, say they have the potential to drain money away from public schools, which will become havens for the poor.