House amends education-testing bill, deletes U‑PASS provisions and sends measure to Senate

Representative Matt Throckmorton moved a floor amendment to House Bill 6,005 on Dec. 18, deleting multiple lines of the education-testing measure that he said would remove duplicative U‑PASS tests. "By eliminating this, it actually saves the state about... around $2.1 million," Throckmorton said while describing the amended language. He told colleagues the change would not jeopardize federal funding.

Supporters framed the change as a cost-saving, streamlining step. Representative Snow said he "strongly" supported the bill and praised Throckmorton for leading a task force on public education that identified the duplication. Representative (11) reminded colleagues that testing alone does not improve learning, saying, "you don't make a cow heavier by weighing it more often." Those remarks were offered in support of removing the extra tests.

Throckmorton's office and school testing directors, he said, worked together on the revisions; the sponsor argued the amendment still keeps Utah compliant with the No Child Left Behind law and that the reallocated funds would be addressed in the appropriations process. After debate, the House adopted the amendment and then voted to move the bill from the House calendar to the Senate calendar for further consideration.

The amendment deleted the lines identified on the floor (described by the sponsor as lines in the mid-70s through 79 and related wording), and supporters estimated a savings in the current budget period of about $2.1 million; details of exact line numbers and final budget accounting were left to the appropriations process. The House record shows the motion to move the amended bill to the Senate passed on the floor.

The next step is Senate consideration of the amended House bill.