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The House chose Monday not to resuscitate a bill to fund teaching CPR in Utah high schools.
It voted 29-38 to kill HB307, which would have spent $200,000 a year to restart a program to provide training and mannequins to teach CPR in health classes. Its sponsor, Rep. Carol Moss, D-Holladay, said that program ended in 2008 when funding for it disappeared.
"I'm not trying to start anything new, just trying to reinstate something that is highly valuable," she said. "The more people we train in CPR, the better for society."
But Rep. David Lifferth, R-Eagle Mountain, said, "I think students do need to be taught CPR. But this is not the way to do it." Other lawmakers said nothing prohibits local school districts from teaching CPR if they choose, and noted that community groups also often teach it.
Lee Davidson