During a year when public schools face tens of millions of dollars in shortfalls, the Utah House of Representatives passed a bill that helps ensure out-of-state youth hockey players get a free education here at an estimated cost to Utah taxpayers of $500,000 to $1 million.

HB355, which would make it more difficult for a school district to challenge a legal guardianship in court, was sponsored by Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, R-Orem, whose son is a member of the Chadders Hockey Club, a main backer of the bill.

With the benign title of "Guardianship Amendments," it moved stealthily through the House and now is in the Senate.

But critics say the bill is a way to saddle Utah taxpayers with the cost of educating out-of-state children from well-to-do families who desire a first-class competitive hockey-training program. It passed the House mostly on a party-line vote, with just five Republicans and all the Democrats present voting against the bill.

Scores of out-of-state youngsters ages 11 to 18 are living in homes, mostly with parents of Chadders Hockey players, to play competitively for the club. The club has several teams at different age levels and competes against other clubs across the country.

Normally, an out-of-state student is charged $4,000 to $6,000, depending on the school district, for the cost of his or her education. But because the host families become the students' legal guardians, the students are treated as residents and don't have to pay tuition.

It costs about $6,500 a year to educate a student in Utah.

Jordan and Salt Lake City school districts filed suit last year to collect out-of-state tuition, but the courts ruled that because the out-of-state parents were not aware they were supposed to pay tuition, there was not an intent to avoid it and the suits were dismissed.

Sandstrom's bill would make it even harder for school districts to argue they are entitled to tuition.

A competing bill, HB367, sponsored by Rep. Laura Black, D-Sandy, would require individuals seeking guardianship to provide evidence to justify the request and to prove the minor intends to be a permanent Utah resident.

But that bill has never even made it out of the House Rules Committee .

Utahns helping others » During his argument Thursday against passing a cigarette tax increase, Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, read on the Senate floor a letter from Ken Berscheit, a restaurant and liquor store owner in Evanston, Wyo., who thanked Utah legislators for increasing the tax so more Utahns will come to his store across the border to buy cigarettes because of his state's lower taxes.

Funny. Stephenson never has mentioned the gratitude of business owners in Idaho, Wyoming and Nevada for Utah's laws against lotteries, parimutuel betting and casino gambling that provides them with so much business from the Beehive State.

Paul Rolly is a political columnist. Reach him at prolly@sltrib.com .