House vote kills measure tied to 'social promotion'

House members killed a bill Monday that would have made it more likely that a young child falling behind in reading is held back a grade.

HB62 by Rep. Karen Morgan, D-Cottonwood Heights, was amended on the floor to allow parents to decide if their child was held back or not, but even that wasn't enough for critics of the bill.

Rep. Ron Bigelow, R-West Valley, said the bill "uses a machete to (lance) a boil," when a pin will do. Morgan agreed that school districts and teachers already have the power to recommend to a parent that their first-, second-, or third-grader be kept back a year because they are not reading at grade level.

But Morgan said there is an built-in, institutional bias against keeping kids back a year, and so they are "socially advanced" to the next grade level, fall further and further behind in the reading and end up being an underachiever in higher grades or even drop out of school.

HB62 failed 40-33.