Utah Legislature: Local vs. state debated in eduction committee

SALT LAKE CITY — The merits of local control versus Legislative mandate was up for discussion Thursday among members of the Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee.

Lawmakers looked at specific programs the Legislature traditionally funds and discussed whether they should continue to allocate money for specific purposes, or give lump sums to districts to be spent at their discretion.

The committee had already cut 7 percent, $166 million, from the current public education budget. They have also set aside another $91 million to examine line by line, which promoted Thursday's discussion.

Rep. Kenneth Sumsion, R-American Fork, shared details of pending legislation he calls "local control on steroids."

While the text of the bill isn't available yet, he presented a hypothetical statewide education budget that would repeal nearly all state statutes tied to funding. Sumsion said he believes local boards are in the best position to know the needs of their children.

The committee also looked specifically at what to do with funding for transportation, school nurses, and library materials — budget items that lawmakers fund.

District librarians told the committee they hope legislators will continue to earmark funds for library materials. They said if not, districts won't choose to fund libraries as they should. Last year, the Legislature appropriated more than $400,000 to library materials. At this point it the session, it has $100,000 appropriated for the upcoming school year.

"When it's left up to the districts, some districts are very strong in allotting money for school library books, others are not," a former district librarian said.

Some committee members said that if lawmakers don't set money aside, districts won't fund important programs.

"The fact is, the local school boards have shown that by and large they don't have the courage to keep the money off the salary negotiating table," said Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Salt Lake. "I don't trust the local school boards to do the right thing when the unions are breathing down their necks."

Utah Education Association President, Sharon Gallagher-Fishbaugh, disagreed, saying no teacher would want money to be pulled from valuable libraries to line their own pockets.

Others stated that if districts don't find certain programs valuable, they should be able to fund programs that do matter to them.

"Should we be supporting something that the community doesn't support?" asked Rep. Bill Wright, R-Holden. 

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