Governor signs bill that takes power away from state school board

The state school board asked, but the governor said no. And now, it is the law: Either the governor, the Legislature or both will be in control of whether Utah schools participate in federal programs — such as No Child Left Behind — that cost the state more than $100,000.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. signed SB162, sponsored by Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem. His spokeswoman last week said other state agencies live up to a similar requirement.

The State Board of Education asked Huntsman to veto the bill because they felt it could jeopardize money for important programs from school lunch to career and technical education.

But the board's move infuriated Dayton and two other legislators as coming out of nowhere — the board never took a position, and therefore never lobbied either way on the bill during the 2008 Legislature, which ended March 5. The outcome appears to be at least a temporary setback for relationship-building between the State Board of Education and conservative legislators.

The governor signed the bill Monday, as well as other education bills, including SB48, aimed at spreading state school building aid to more school districts and also equalizing some of the property tax Salt Lake County school districts.

The idea was to help the growing west side of Jordan District have enough money to build new schools following the district split, which took more than half the tax base but fewer than half the kids. But the $12 million combined loss to those other four school districts — Murray, Salt Lake City, Granite and the now forming Jordan-east district — is likely to result in a bigger tax bill for people living in those areas.

No word as of mid-day Tuesday whether the governor exercised line-item veto power, as the state school board also requested, on the controversial $2.5 billion education omnibus bill.

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