Subcommittee weighs accountable process budget recommendations; lawmakers split over CTE student-organization funding

Staff from the Legislative Fiscal Analyst's Office presented final recommendations from the accountable process budget (APB) review for public education programs and the Utah State Board of Education's contract-based initiatives during the Senate Education Appropriation Subcommittee meeting.

Kiki Hudson, LFA analyst, told the subcommittee that multiple college-and-career, health-and-wellness, and technology-related programs cleared the APB review and were recommended for inclusion in the base budget without change. "These programs cleared the accountable process budget, standards, and funding review process," Hudson said. She recommended renaming one program's federal label (Federal Commodities Grama to USD A Foods and Schools) and moving several technology contracts into a new state technology contracts line item to improve transparency.

Rochelle Gunderson, LFA financial analyst, reviewed more detailed recommendations on career and technical education (CTE). She said some items should be included in the base, some moved administratively (for example, transitioning a "CTE comprehensive guidance" carve-out into a Basic School Program line item called College and Career Counseling), and others should be withheld pending the results of an internal USBE audit of CTE operations that the analysts expect next month. "Our recommendations in this section are pending the audit results," Gunderson said.

The analysts proposed withholding two technology-related items from the base: the IT Academy (certification…