Ed board choices targeted

Lawmakers differ on how to do it, but the way State Board of Education candidates are nominated is headed for another change.

Reps. David Cox, R-Lehi, and Karen Morgan, D-Cottonwood Heights, both received support from House Education Standing Committee members Wednesday for separate bills that would alter the board selection process.

Current law, changed last year by SB154, allows for an 11-member nominating committee that recommends candidates for the state board. The governor then decides which candidates to place on the ballot, and voters have the final say on who to elect to the 15-member board.

The problem lawmakers have with the current system is that the nominating committee is made up of members appointed by the governor and specific special-interest groups.

Both HB223 and HB84 would return representation on the nominating committee back to the local level. Committee members would come from local school boards and districts. The Utah Farm Bureau, Utah Manufacturer's Association, Utah Taxpayers Association, Utah State Chamber of Commerce, Utah Food Industry Association and Utah Retail Merchants Association all get to appoint representatives to the nominating committee.

Cox's bill (HB84) would transfer all power from the governor to the lieutenant governor during the candidate selection process. It would also eliminate representation by any specific or even general faction and it would not limit the size of the nominating committee.

Morgan's proposal (HB223) would limit the committee to eight members: four from education and four from business and industry. Unlike Cox's bill, not all members would come through the local school board, though they would still need to live within the district. With HB223, the governor would still appoint members of the nominating committee.

The State Board of Education is expected to take a position on both bills this Friday. Chairman Kim Burningham said the board favors a local process for selecting board candidates. Nominations for candidates begins around mid-March.

Representatives from business and industry told legislators to give the current system time to prove its worth. They also supported the notion that a bill by Sen. Tom Hatch, R-Panguitch, would solve the problem.

Hatch's bill, not yet drafted, would supposedly eliminate specific special-interest groups from the nominating committee. But it's not likely, say lawmakers, that SB185 would address the issue of local representation.

Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Holladay and a supporter of Cox's bill, said one "egregious flaw" of the current system is that it's set up to exclude women, particularly stay-at-home mothers, from the nominating committee.

Both bills now go to the House floor.

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com