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Senate advances education measures: $10M for online testing, school-building study, and State Board nominating changes
Summary
The Senate advanced multiple education measures to third reading, including a $10 million one-time grant bill to support online student testing, a school-building task force to study prototypes and costs, and SB185 to change the State Board of Education nominating process amid debate over local representation.
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah senators on Feb. 18 advanced several education-related bills to third reading, moving a $10 million technology grant, a school‑building task force, and changes to State Board of Education nominations toward final consideration.
Sen. Bill Blackham presented SB51, a one-time $10 million proposal to help school districts obtain online testing hardware and software so teachers can get immediate assessment results. Blackham and other senators stressed the proposal will be written as one-time money and include accountability language requiring districts to report how funds were used. "Anything that comes back six months later, we cannot react to," Blackham said in arguing for faster feedback via online testing.
Sen. Stevenson introduced SB154 to create a legislative task force to study school-building needs, costs and the potential for prototype buildings to reduce construction costs. The sponsor said the task force would help evaluate statewide practices and identify savings when the Legislature contributes to school construction.
SB185 generated extensive debate on how state school-board candidates should be nominated. Sponsor Sen. Mike Hatch said a statewide nominating committee would help the governor choose the best-qualified candidates for a board that governs policy across the state; opponents urged district-based nominations so local perspectives are represented. Sen. Hale proposed amendments to preserve local input by creating district nominating committees, but that amendment failed. The Senate ultimately moved SB185 to the third-reading calendar.
What’s next: All three measures were placed on the third-reading calendar for final consideration in upcoming floor time.
