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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah is looking to improve high school education by creating a computer programming class while creating smaller classes all around.
These are two bills that Utah Legislature voted on during Wednesday's meeting with three other bills on the docket.
Here are some of the highlights from these stories.
Senate votes down bill to divert alcohol fines to A.G.'s office
The Utah Senate voted down a proposal Wednesday to divert fines from alcohol violations to the Utah Attorney General's Office for increased enforcement.
SB72, sponsored by Sen. Jerry Stevenson, R-Layton, would have taken up to $180,000 annually from the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to help prosecute cases such as selling alcohol to minors or violating terms of a state-issued liquor license. The fines now go to the state's general fund.
Senators who opposed the measure said they didn't like the idea of taking money from a state agency to help fund the attorney general's office.
Legislative committee approves bill to fund computer coding classes in Utah schools
Lawmakers unanimously recommended a bill Tuesday that seeks to provide more opportunities for Utah students to gain computer coding experience in junior high and high school.
SB107 would allocate just more than $2 million for the Utah STEM Action Center and the Utah State Board of Education to approve and purchase computer coding software programs teachers could use to teach the skill, which is in high demand among employers in the state and across the nation, according to bill sponsor Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper.
"We have a shortage, and we should be supplying that shortage of trained employees from Americans rather than having to ship these high-paying jobs offshore, or having to go to other countries to bring those employees here," Stephenson said to the Senate Education Committee.
The Senate Education Committee unanimously recommended a bill Tuesday that would add $10 million to a fund devoted to reducing class sizes in Utah schools.
Utah schools already get $115 million each year to hire additional teachers or other specialists, but SB106 would allocate $10 million in new money to further help schools struggling to lessen the ratio of students to teachers.
Eighty percent of the new money would be distributed the same way as current funds, and 20 percent of the new money would be distributed to districts that have both a high enrollment and a property tax base below the statewide average.
A Senate committee gave a favorable recommendation Tuesday to a bill that would reform not only State School Board elections but also those of local school boards into a partisan process.
Sen. Alvin Jackson, R-Highland, the sponsor of SB104, said the current school board election process in which candidates are chosen by a committee and appointed by the governor lacks “clarity, transparency and accountability.” Constituents do not feel “empowered” or represented, Jackson said, because candidates do not have enough opportunity to even access the ballots.
“If we go through this process for our legislators, our county commissioners, our governor and our members of Congress, why would we not go through the same process with our school board, which I would argue is more critical than some of the aforementioned offices?” he said.
Yet another attempt by clean air groups and Democratic lawmakers to repeal Utah's "no more stringent" law has survived early scrutiny in 2015 Legislature, clearing a Senate committee by a 4-2 vote.
Sen. Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake City, urged his SB87 be heard on its own merits and not fail because of comparisons to other measures that may be more complex, with additional provisions.
"This is a straight repeal," he told members of the Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee on Wednesday. "It is a Utah solution to a Utah problem."
Davis ran the bill last year, but it ultimately failed. It allows the state to make rules — specifically related to air pollution — that are more stringent or apart from what the federal government has implemented by repealing a statutory provision that forbids that action.
A legislative committee unanimously approved a $3.9 billion education base budget recommendation Wednesday, along with hypothetical budget cuts as part of a budget effectiveness review.
The base budget contained in SB1 serves as an early starting point for legislators in determining what final allocations will be, according to Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, Senate chairman of the Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee.
"We have something we can count on going forward, and we'll have plenty of time to pass an agreed-upon budget," Stephenson said.
The base budget does not take into account revenues, which are expected to provide a "significant increase" to the final education budget, he said.
The final budget will also include an appropriation of $48.6 million to account for a projected enrollment of 7,000 additional students entering school this fall, as well as an $8 million increase in property tax revenue from new growth.
A bill that lawmakers say would more evenly spread the burden of providing capital funding for charter schools was recommended for House approval Wednesday.
HB119, if signed into law, would require some school districts to pay more than $500,000 to support ongoing capital funds for Utah schools. But bill sponsor Rep. Bradley Last, R-Hurricane, said it would be a "fair fix" of an oversight in policy.
When charter schools were originally established in Utah, local school districts were required to provide financial assistance to cover the capital costs of charter schools, which don't have authority to levy property taxes.
The current policy requires school districts to pay one-fourth of local revenues to a statewide capital fund, which benefits both charter schools and district schools. But the policy allows districts to select the lesser of two options: Paying 25 percent of per-pupil local revenues or paying 25 percent of charter school students' average local revenues.
This creates inequity among districts in what level they're required to participate, which places a higher tax burden on districts with fewer financial resources. As an example, the Davis County School District earns $852 per student in local revenues and pays $213 per charter student — 25 percent of the overall revenue.
