Educators and parents spent much of this session fearing enormous budget cuts to schools -- up to 17 percent.

In the end, lawmakers took a bite out of education, rather than a whole limb, by passing HB2, a $2.4 billion minimum school program budget that cuts education by a net amount of about 5.2 percent for the 2010-11 school year. They'll use about $298 million in federal stimulus money as a temporary fix to keep cuts from running deeper.

For the current school year, lawmakers made a net cut of about 1.5 percent to classrooms by finding $118 million from other places in the budget. The base amount of money spent per student, $2,577, will stay the same.

Larry Shumway, deputy state superintendent, said the cuts will be difficult for schools to absorb but lawmakers did an "admirable job" of limiting them to 5.2 percent.

"Each district will handle these cuts in different ways," Shumway said.

Lawmakers made some specific cuts, including eliminating a $20 million performance pay program for teachers passed last year and slashing $77.6 million meant to pay teachers for training days.

However, most of the budget-cutting decisions will be left to school districts. Districts will likely have the option of shortening the school year by five days to help deal with the reductions. Todd Hauber, state associate superintendent, said larger school districts will likely be able to avoid shortening the school year whereas smaller ones might still need that option.

Overall, said Kim Campbell, Utah Education Association president, the cuts weren't as bad as they could have been, although they will still impact students and teachers.

Campbell said the UEA is disappointed the Legislature chose to fund a new $300,000 performance pay pilot program in this lean year, even though the union supports performance pay.

"There were still some pet projects left in the long-term funding package in a time when I think the public expects them to roll up their sleeves and focus on funding the basics," Campbell said.

Given the tight budget, lawmakers largely focused on changing existing education laws.

Rep. Merlynn Newbold, R-South Jordan, continued a fight from last year to spread property tax revenue more equally across school districts statewide. But the bill, HB66, failed after some House members said it would be unfair to districts that would eventually lose revenue to poorer ones.

Another bill, SB199, which would have given all parent groups access to schools, failed after an outcry from the PTA.