Utah has joined a number of states that have worked in recent months to drop enrollment caps on charter schools to try to win federal Race to the Top money.

On Wednesday, the Senate Education Committee approved SB188, which would remove Utah's limits on charter school enrollment growth. Now, charter school enrollment in Utah may grow each year only by a number equal to 1.4 percent of total school district enrollment as of the previous school year.

SB188 would remove that limitation and instead would base charter school enrollment growth each year on how much money lawmakers appropriate.

"I think it's a good thing," said Brian Allen, chair of the State Charter School Board. "It's positive to the extent that it's going to help us with our Race to the Top application, which I think is helpful to the state."

Recently, Utah applied for as much as $250 million of $4.35 billion in Race to the Top money. That money will go to states with the best plans to carry out certain school reforms. Utah charter schools and districts stand to gain anywhere from $50,000 to $22.5 million each if the state wins the money. Not all states will win.

Utah's reform plan includes such goals as lowering the number of students who don't graduate from high school by 5 percent a year and decreasing the number of students who don't test on-grade level in reading and math by 5 percent a year.

The state also wants to hire someone to help oversee early childhood education in Utah, keep full-day kindergarten programs going, create tools to measure teaching quality, revise the state's high school exit exam, improve training for math teachers and give the same type of help to troubled high schools that now goes only to troubled schools that receive federal funding.

But some had worried that Utah's charter school growth limits could hurt the state's chances. President Barack Obama has said he would like to see states tear down artificial barriers to charter school growth as part of Race to the Top. Other states have also worked to change their laws to have a better chance at the money.

Bill sponsor Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, said he hopes the bill will help Utah to better qualify for the federal money.

Allen said he would be happy to see the limit gone even though he said the state charter school board has never needed to exceed that cap.

"As a board we've always tried to manage quality growth, and if we see a quality opportunity, we hate to be constrained because of the cap," Allen said.

The bill now moves to the Senate floor. State leaders expect to hear back from the feds about the money in coming weeks.