All Utah high school students soon may take the ACT college-entrance exam — and have the state pay for it.

The Senate voted 28-0 on Wednesday to pass SB10 and sent it to the House. The measure would eliminate state testing now taken by juniors in high school and replace it with the ACT.

Sponsoring Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, said the ACT is a better measure of how well students are prepared for college and might encourage some students who otherwise were not considering college to enter it if they receive good scores.

Eliminating the current test and switching to the ACT is expected to cost the state an extra $700,000 a year.

In Utah, 71 percent of graduating seniors in 2010 took the ACT. This past school year, more than 80 Utah high schools offered the ACT for free to juniors as part of a state pilot program, but the proposed bill would expand the ACT to all high schools.

Lee Davidson