"This will elevate the visibility of the office by making it a partisan election and at the same time cut the number of constituents in half so they would actually be known and be able to serve their constituents more responsively," Stephenson said. -

Two similar bills failed last year. Since, the chairman of the school board has found himself pushing against legislative leaders in his opposition to private school tuition vouchers, which voters overturned in last week's election. Huntsman supports vouchers but attempted to stay out of the question when it came before voters.

School choice, including vouchers, is part of the Republican Party platform. Requiring state school board candidates to rise from party conventions in overwhelmingly Republican Utah could yield a more conservative school board. And with a Republican governor appointing a state superintendent who would likely work for a Republican-majority board, judging from Utah's voting history, there might not be much disagreement over party basics.

Then again, the Utah House is more than two-thirds Republican, yet the voucher question repeatedly has found trouble there among moderates, and this year barely passed.

But Stephenson says the proposals before his committee have nothing to do with vouchers.

"This is continuing our discussion of a year ago. Was that in response to vouchers? No," Stephenson said. "We're discussing the best way of getting qualified candidates and better representation to constituencies ... (and) make sure we have more than one person file for an office."

The Utah PTA says more is at stake. President Marilyn Simister fears the office of the superintendent or state school board member could turn into political favors or "subject to so much party politics maybe people aren't as effective as they would be if they were independent."

She particularly worries about School and Institutional Trust Lands, and the schools' nearly $1 billion nest egg the PTA wants prudently invested and managed.

"There's a lot of money there, and if there's political pressure, partisan pressure as well, then whoever is controlling that might become responsible to that rather than responsible to the beneficiaries, which are the schoolchildren," Simister said. "Schools shouldn't be a partisan issue; everybody should be working together no matter what party they are."

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E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com