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SALT LAKE CITY — Even as Utah lawmakers labor to tidy up the section of the Utah code on education, legislators have filed more than 90 bills for consideration in the 2018 legislative session, and it's only June.
One lawmaker is asking whether it's time for a moratorium on filing new bills until the Utah Legislature's Education Interim Committee completes recodification of the state education code.
Titles 53A, 53B, 53C and 53D of the Utah Code now include 65 chapters of education statutes covering issues as diverse as compulsory education requirements in public education, college tuition waivers and establishment of state aboreta.
Recodification of the section is akin to cleaning out a gargantuan hall closet, except that the job will be tackled by legislative staff guided by a committee of 19 lawmakers and with suggestions from education community stakeholders.
"We've come to the point in 53A where it's just kind of a mess," said Victoria Ashby, attorney with the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel.
Three titles have been proposed to "give us room for expansion. I know none of us want to think this code will keep expanding, but Sen. (Lyle) Hillyard can tell you that we've been through a (recodification) of the education code before, and here we are again. So we're trying to make room for growth."
And while the job calls for discarding obsolete sections of code and reorganizing it, no different from purging from the closet moth-eaten sweaters or those jeans that won't zip until you lose 20 pounds and organizing what remains, there are people in the household who are attempting to add new items to its contents, such as the perfect beach bag or extra wide denim pants.
Tracy Nuttall, attorney with the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel, said 87 bill files have been opened since the conclusion of the 2017 legislative session, along with six or seven boxcars — bills that have a general title but no legislative language.
One education committee member, Rep. Kim Coleman, R-West Jordan, has opened at least nine bill files, according to the Utah Legislature's website.
Rep. Derrin Owens, R-Fountain Green, wondered aloud if it's possible to place a moratorium on opening bill files until the committee recodifies the education code.
"I mean seriously, we're going to die under our own weight with this. Can we look at legislation to pass education bills every other year or something? It's already been mentioned here, but the instantaneous effect this has on school districts and all the piecemeal, to use Rep. Gibson's words, 'It's ridiculous.' There has to be something we can do to slow this," Owens said.
Owens, who is a school counselor, said the state has a "constitutionally mandated body, the State School Board, to handle education. We as legislators don't seem to get it. I know as legislators we think we have the magic bullet to fix education, but can we do a moratorium while we do this, at least for this process?"
Sen. Ann Millner, R-Ogden, Senate co-chairwoman of the Education Interim Committee, said legislative leaders have asked lawmakers to exercise restraint "as we do this process this year because of the implications."
Ashby said recodification of the education code will be addressed in a series of committee bills, as opposed to bills sponsored by individual lawmakers. Committee bills, under legislative rule, take priority, she said.
"I don't think we have the ability as a committee to ask people not to do education bills," Millner said.
"But we can ask people to be thoughtful given that were going through (recodification). This is really important that we do this," she said.
Rep. LaVar Christensen, R-Draper, said lawmakers need to be mindful of the impact of the "tidal wave or avalanche" of new legislation passed that the State School Board and local boards of education must deal with each year.
"Everyone has to figure it all out, and it's really, really difficult," Christensen said.
Millner said recodification will be a "Herculean effort" considering the size and complexity of the education code, let alone the need to complete the job expeditiously so new education legislation filed for the 2018 general session corresponds with the applicable sections of the code.
"It's going to be really difficult for staff. Our goal is to try to get this done in the first week of the session. It's going to be very difficult to run education bills unless we have this framework in place," Millner said.
