Senate approves omnibus education funding package after floor amendments

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Senate passed a wide-ranging education funding and policy package on March 4, 2008, approving the first substitute to Senate Bill 2, an omnibus measure that combines a dozen education bills into one appropriation and policy vehicle.

Senator John Stevenson, the bill sponsor, described the package as "the much heralded omnibus education funding package," saying it rolls together measures ranging from extended-year pay for special-education teachers and a family-centered pre-K pilot to $1,700 salary adjustments for qualifying classroom teachers. "It appropriates a total of $2.5 billion in state funding to support the minimum school program," Stevenson said on the floor.

The bill funds a variety of priorities: a $1,700 pay adjustment for qualifying teachers (about $60 million), $15.8 million one-time for elementary arts learning, a $5 million allocation to differential pay pilot programs targeting math and science, $3 million for rural pupil transportation needs and starter funding for English-language-learner family-literacy centers. The weighted pupil unit (WPU) increases from $2,514 to $2,577, a 2.5% bump.

Floor debate focused heavily on process and on a series of amendments offered by senators. Senator McCoy moved Amendment 1 to remove the early-childhood HB200 pilot from SB2 and to shift administration of the differentiated-pay program from the Department of Human Resource Management to the State Office of Education; Stevenson strongly opposed the change and the amendment failed on roll call.

Senator Romero offered Amendment 6 seeking to redirect $5 million from the math-and-science differential-pay line to a separate class-size-reduction program; Romero argued parents in his district prioritized smaller classes. "I've heard that at town hall meetings," he said. Sponsor Stevenson and supporters of the differential pay said the state faces a critical shortage of qualified math and science teachers and that the differential is a modest, market-based response. The amendment failed on the floor.

Senator Van Tassel successfully offered Amendment 10 to preserve and expand funding for Career and Technical Education online testing by a modest reallocation within the bill; that amendment passed after the sponsor accepted a floor modification to the dollar amounts.

After debate and amendment votes the Senate, under suspension of the rules, read the first substitute twice and passed final passage on a roll-call vote of 21 yeas, 7 nays and 1 absent. The bill is referred to the House for further action.

The floor record shows persistent procedural objections from several senators about bundling many measures into one omnibus vehicle; those critics said combining bills risks bypassing full debate on matters that had not yet been considered or passed by the House. Sponsor Stevenson defended the approach, saying combining related measures avoids contradictory coordinating clauses and helps ensure coordinated implementation if multiple related bills pass.

Next steps: the first-substitute version of SB 2 now goes to the House; several senators said they expect continued debate in conference committees or on return votes in the other body.