Science ed bill sees defeat

• The House also failed to vote on a perennial "school choice" bill — this time, vouchers for private school tuition instead of the more commonly sought tuition tax credits. HB184 remained on the House's to-do list; sponsoring Rep. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, said he wouldn't bring it out without needed votes in the bag. He said the bill's movement was crippled by political promises for the upcoming election by voucher backers Parents for Choice in Education and the anti-voucher Utah Education Association.

The bill also was relatively late in coming, as it changed hands mid-session from Rep. Brad Dee, R-Washington Terrace, to Adams, whose bill sought to give only partial state funding, instead of full dollars like Dee's bill had, to schools losing students under the voucher program.

"Since that all took so long, it just became a victim of time and other pressing issues that consumed the end of the legislative session," Parents for Choice executive director Elisa Clements Peterson said.

• Meanwhile, Second Substitute HB77, sponsored by Rep. Dave Cox, R-Lehi, was amended and passed in the Senate as of press time. It would let a first- or second-class city's residents vote to create their own school districts. The idea is to create smaller districts more responsive to patrons. It would also require a feasibility test.

"The voice of the people was heard, which is huge," said Laura Pinnock, who lives in Holladay in the Granite School District, which last November voted to close two east-side elementary schools in a process that angered area parents. She said residents of Holladay — so long as the House agreed to changes by midnight Wednesday — now could start talking about next steps. People in West Valley and South Salt Lake cities also have tinkered with the idea of seceding from Granite District.

But attorney and assistant to the Granite superintendent Martin Bates said the bill is a bad idea, because it lets residents in first- and second-class cities, rather than the whole district, vote to go on their own.

"What this bill does in its heart is allow one group of people to affect education and taxes of other people without their input," Bates said.

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Contributing: Peter Nagy

E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com