What's new?

• GOP legislative leaders rolled 12 education bills into the schools' main budget bill, the Minimum School Program Act and five tax-related bills into a package — believed to be unprecedented at this level. The education omnibus bill created an immediate stir.

• Education leaders and some legislators decried the bundling and said those bills should be weighed on their own merits, noting some died in committee or on House floor.

• GOP House and Senate leaders brought a proposal brokered with Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. to give teachers another $25 million in one-time money. That proposal puts $5 million into new-teacher signing bonuses as a recruitment tool and $19 million in performance-pay bonuses the districts would access by writing performance-pay proposals. Another $1 million would help teachers get national certification through the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence, although the House Republican caucus opposes that funding provision.