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Senate rejects bill to allow voters to create new school districts; SB 13 fails on third reading
Summary
After extended floor debate about costs, equity and safeguards, the Utah Senate voted 9–19 on Feb. 23, 1998 to defeat SB 13, a bill that would have created a statutory petition process allowing voters in large districts to form new school districts.
The Utah State Senate on Feb. 23, 1998 rejected Senate Bill 13, a measure to create a statutory mechanism for voters to petition to form new school districts. The bill failed on a third-reading roll-call vote, 9 ayes to 19 nays with one senator absent.
Sponsor remarks and amendment: The bill’s sponsor said SB 13 would not itself create new districts but would add a mechanism to state law allowing petitions and elections to create districts where voters asked for them. The sponsor explained the bill’s key safeguards: a 50,000-population floor for qualifying districts, a requirement that petitions gather signatures equal to 15% of qualified electors in each school board-member subdistrict (an amendment the Senate adopted), and that any election would be held during a…
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