The Legislature’s budget committee stripped controversial language from the public education budget Wednesday, saying the policy changes it sought were significant enough that they would have to be debated in separate bills.
The adoption of the so-called intent language last week created a firestorm of opposition from education groups who claimed it was an attempt to make an end-run around the Legislature and ram through significant policy changes.
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"It will not be in the education budget," said Senate budget chairman Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan.
The State School Board sent a letter to Hillyard and other budget leaders this week, arguing that adopting major policy changes without public notice violated Utah’s Open and Public Meetings Act.
The proposed changes included recommendations to gradually force school districts to absorb more of the cost of charter schools and make significant funding changes for an elementary school arts program.
Hillyard said he did not think the recommendations from the Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee violated the state’s open-meetings law, but staff attorneys notified budget leaders early on that they thought the proposals were an overreach.
But Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, who is chairman of the subcommittee that recommended the language as part of the education budget, said the changes were recommendations for legislative leaders to consider — although the sheets were labeled "Proposed Statutory/Intent Language."
He said it was the same process used in the past by his and other budget panels, and was not a violation of the open-meetings law.
"I think this is simply driven by the fact that some of these items they don’t like," Stephenson said.
Senate President Michael Waddoups and House Speaker Becky Lockhart had defended the process, as well.
Kory Holdaway, of the Utah Education Association, said each of the proposals floated by the subcommittee will have to stand on its own.
"It’s dead. That’s what we were hoping for," Holdaway said. "These bills will make it or they won’t."
"We’re very happy with the outcome," said Patti Harrington of the Utah School Superintendents Association.
The flap over the intent language aside, she said educators are happy with the budget proposal, which includes funding for 12,500 students expected to enter public schools in the fall, a proposed raise for teachers and other priority projects.
Other subcommittees also went too far, seeking to craft policy in the budget bill. The Natural Resources subcommittee, for example, sought to privatize state golf courses in the budget bill.
The budget committee will consider the recommendations from the various subcommittees and craft the $13 billion state budget.
Highlights of the recommendations include funding to bolster the strapped state crime lab, to control invasive species, to deal with a spike in demands for Medicaid, to build a facility for convicts who violate the terms of their parole, to raise the pay for college professors and staff and to hire new highway patrol troopers.
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