This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Lawmakers set the stage for another fight over partisan and nonpartisan school board elections on Thursday.
After hearing six proposals for reforming the election system, members of the House Education Committee decided to send three competing bills to the floor of the House for debate.
A third measure, HJR16, would have 2016 voters consider amending the Utah Constitution to allow the governor to appoint school board members.
SB104, sponsored by Highland Republican Sen. Alvin Jackson, has already been approved by the Senate. But the bill was amended on Thursday to preserve nonpartisan elections at the school district level and, as a result, would require senators to sign off again.
"What this bill is designed to do is to bring into the light what's been occurring in the shadows," Jackson said. "Our beloved caucus system affords parents and citizens the opportunity to properly vet those candidates who would serve on the school board."
But Mapleton Republican Rep. Francis Gibson said Utah's caucus system has already been circumvented by a compromise lawmakers passed last year that allows candidates to secure a place on a party's primary ticket by gathering signatures.
Gibson said partisan school board proposals are regularly sponsored and defeated at the Legislature, but his bill, HB186, attempts to strike a compromise by requiring candidates to gather signatures from their constituents.
"This provides an alternative that would require someone to make an effort to go out and get on the ballot, regardless of your party," he said.
The flurry of school board election bills follows a court decision in September that effectively struck down the state's system for selecting candidates. Currently, candidates are interviewed by a nominating committee that forwards names on to the governor, who ultimately has discretion over the final names that appear on the ballot.
That indirect election system has been broadly criticized for years, but lawmakers have failed to reach a consensus on a replacement method in the past.
A recent UtahPolicy.com poll found that 56 percent of Utahns prefer nonpartisan elections for school board members, with 27 percent supporting partisan elections and another 12 percent favoring appointment by the governor.
When broken down along party lines, the UtahPolicy.com poll found that nonpartisan elections were preferred by a plurality of Republican voters and a majority of both Democrat and independent voters.
Laney Benedict, a representative of the group Parents Involved in Education, presented committee members with 1,750 signatures from Utahns urging support of nonpartisan elections. She said all voters should have a say in who governs education, not just the delegates at a party's nominating convention.
"Let the vote come from we, the people," she said.
Another petition, with roughly 1,250 signatures, calls for partisan elections.
Stan Rasmussen, representing the conservative Sutherland Institute, said a party structure would provide more opportunities for voters to interact with school board candidates. He said school board districts are too large for nonpartisan governance, with one Utah district covering an area larger than the state of Indiana.
"We think this is less about being partisan and more about vetting, more about achieving familiarity and scrutiny for voters," he said.
But Mary Nielson, a member of the Juab Board of Education, questioned the efficacy of delegates. She said she went door to door, meeting with voters during her campaign for the school board. But she was elected a state delegate by only 20 people, 15 of whom she brought with her to her neighborhood caucus meeting.
"I believe as a school board member, I was vetted," she said. "As a state delegate, I was not."
All three bills now will go before the full House for consideration. HJR16, sponsored by Riverton Republican Rep Dan McCay, would require a two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate to move on.
A similar constitutional amendment, sponsored by Ogden Republican Sen. Ann Millner, has received committee approval but has not yet been heard by the Senate.
The three bills rejected by the House committee on Thursday include an additional partisan election bill and proposals to allow local school boards to select state school board members and to require state school board candidates to be sitting members of a local school district or charter school board.