The board also wants Huntsman to veto HB162, sponsored by Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem. The bill requires that the governor's office approve federal agreements that cost Utah more than $100,000 a year. Those exceeding $500,000 would need legislative management's OK, and those exceeding $1 million would require the Legislature to sign off on them.

It's no secret the Utah Legislature is no fan of No Child Left Behind, which brings more than $100 million to Utah, mostly to help disadvantaged children. Legislators for two years threatened to opt out of the program, which they contend violates state rights to oversee public education, is unfair in its public reports on school achievement and is largely an unfunded mandate.

Dayton has said her bill allows the state to weigh costs versus benefits of federal programs.

But the state school board says a cost analysis alone will be costly.

Take the school lunch program. Depending on what you count — salaries of teachers on cafeteria duty? Utility costs? Fuel costs for trucks delivering food? — that program alone could cost the state $75 million to implement, Shumway said.

"Calculating the associated state and local costs is going to be enormously difficult, and having it come out to a number that is going to be acceptable is going to be a problem," Shumway said. "It's going to be enormously controversial depending on the program," such as educating migrant students.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Patti Harrington noted the board could seek a veto, or "a line-item veto to limit it only to No Child Left Behind." But the board voted to ask the governor to down the whole bill, also out of concerns how it would affect existing programs.

"I don't know if we realized how onerous it would be," board member Bill Colbert said.

That said, the board voted to move ahead on its five-year plan to continue $14 million in federal career and technical education money, which costs the state some $1 million to implement, Harrington estimated. About 60 percent of the money goes to colleges.

The state plan is due April 1; SB162 would take effect July 1.

Still, the board did vote to alert Sen. Dayton to its veto request out of desires to work better with legislators. It also is drafting a "thank you" note to the Legislature for its focus on education, which got more than half the state's new available money.

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