Partisan races for school boards?

State and local school board members would be chosen through a partisan election process under a new bill introduced Friday that has the support of all but two state senators.

The sponsor of SB194, Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble, R-Provo, said his motivation wasn't politics. "It's not partisanship that's driving it. It's encouraging candidates," he said.

The proposed change would result in political parties recruiting more candidates for school board races, he said, predicting it would result in "more visible campaigns" because of party and special-interest involvement.

Getting advocacy groups like the pro-voucher Parents for Choice in Education involved in school board races, Bramble said, would be "a very positive outcome. That's what we're hoping for."

The bill is among three that would shake up the way Utah's public school leaders are picked.

• HB144 would put district superintendents through retention elections.

• SJR11 would let the governor, instead of the state school board, pick the state schools superintendent.

School leaders don't like any of them.

"The board members are elected because they want to help public education," Steve Peterson, executive director of the Utah School Superintendents Association, who also speaks for the Utah School Boards Association on Capitol Hill. "They don't want to be in partisan politics ..., (which) should not come into play in a public school setting."

Lawmakers for some time have taken interest in State Board of Education elections. Local board candidates simply file for candidacy. But state board elections since 1991 have involved the governor, who picks who goes on the ballot from a list recommended by nominating committees.

Lawmakers have tinkered with the process in recent years, going from 15 nominating committees to one that balances education and business interests.

But last year, the process came under greater scrutiny after the nominating committee was organized months late, limiting the candidate field, complained Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper. Governor's education deputy Christine Kearl blamed the delay on the complicated process.

"We're disappointed with the process," said Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem. "It's not working well enough."