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SALT LAKE CITY -- With a the main budget hurdle behind them, lawmakers on Utah's Capitol Hill are now focusing on a key $2.3 billion education bill, but there's a hitch.
Senate Bill 2 was substituted Thursday morning by the Utah House. Lawmakers took out a provision that would have eventually shifted funding for charter schools from the state to districts.
Senate Republicans say they want that provision back.
"We feel that that has to be addressed," Draper Sen. Howard Stephenson said following a Senate Republican Caucus meeting. "We've talked about it for over four years now, and every year the answer is: ‘Let's wait another year.'"
"We simply can't afford to have so much money that would have otherwise gone into the weighted pupil unit going into districts to fund students who are no longer in their seats," Stephenson added.
It will now be up to a conference committee to try to come up with a compromise. Stephenson said it's possible the session could end without the bill being passed, but Senate President Michael Waddoups said he's confident something will be worked out.
E-mail: mgiauque@ksl.com
