S.B. 2 Public Education Budget Amendments

What this bill does

The bill would cut public education budget lines by about 0.85%, roughly $49.9 million total, mostly from unused balances. It would also add about 2.5% (about $142 million) for items such as at-risk student funding, school fee relief, and technology and literacy programs, and make several changes to USDB, online program funding, and superintendent transfer authority.

Plain-English summary written by AI from the sponsor’s presentation in committee and on the floor. Check the official text below.

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Every vote

• 23 yes, 6 noFinal Senate vote · Mar 3, 2026Who voted how
• 70 yes, 1 no, 4 absentFinal House vote · Mar 4, 2026Who voted how

Hearings and debates

• Mar 3, 2026 Senate floor debate▶ Watch
  Transcript (39 turns)

  1. Sen. Heidi Balderree45:29

     Uh, some highlights of our budget reductions in public education appropriations. Uh, we did one time reductions totaling 8.2 million and ongoing reductions totaling 41.7 million for a combined total of 49.9 million, or just under 1% at eight tenths of a percent or 0.85%. The reductions primarily affected non lapsing balances and moderate growing balances, along with targeted adjustments to select programs. Some highlights of our budget increases. The budget increase included $42.6 million ongoing and 102.6 million one time totaling 145.2 million or approximately 2.5% Major increases or restorations in the public education budget. Amendments from the income tax fund include 25 million ongoing for at-risk students. It provides additional WPU funding for economically disadvantaged and English language learner students to help offset the higher cost of delivering educational opportunities. 17.8 million one time for the restoration of school fees mitigation funding. This supplementally restores school fees to LEAs one-time in fiscal year 2026. Senate bill two includes 72.2 million in additional one-time appropriations from the public education economic stabilization restricted account. One-time increases. Emphasize a focus on strategic initiatives, infrastructure partnerships, literacy support, career connected learning and innovation efforts. Some key highlights include 35 million for applied professional education experience or Apex Centers. 13.9 million for various technology programs, Adobe AP and other test preps, school data, et cetera. 5 million for grow your own special educators. 4.8 million for the USDB enrichment program. Correction, 3.8 million for the student credential account. Two and a half million for reduced price. School lunch. Other statutory changes, section two, line 1 93 and section four. Line 2 32 requires the State Board of Education to establish personnel and data standards for USDB and provide related reporting. Section nine, line 4 6 4 3 and section 10, line 9 1 13 corrects duplicate funding of students participating in certain online programs. Section 11, authorized line 9 96 authorizes the state superintendent in fiscal year 2027 and fiscal year 2028 to transfer funds within state board line items to support administrative reorganization with required reporting to the legislature. With that, I conclude my presentation and recommend that Senate Bill two shall pass. Oh, sorry.

  2. Senate President Ronald M. Winterton (presiding)48:17

     Senator Balderree, thank you for the presentation. I think we're open for discussion. Gonna go to Senator Riebe first. Senator Riebe.

  3. Sen. Kathleen A. Riebe48:26

     Thank you Mr. President. Um, you know, um, every year we struggle with education funding and every year we're told that it's increased by bucket loads. And I look at this list that I get from my superintendents and my school districts and their boards, and I try to follow what they ask me on this list. This is the people that were elected in our local communities come together and make a list to try to support their schools. And as I look at this list, there's a couple of things that are really concerning for our school districts. We're cutting $18.3 million to digital teaching and learning something that our school districts support. We are cutting educator salary adjustments. We're working to build trust with educators. Yes, we're cutting, allocate, uh, educator salary adjustments by $4.8 million. Competency-based grants is cutting $2 million. Um, software licenses for early literacy closure is $10 million. One ongoing, uh, stem endorsements is 1.2. These are things that our schools use every day to enrich our students and get trained by professionals. Um, we are cutting D-P-S-D-S-P-D division of service with public people with disabilities by 1.6 million and then 5.2 million ongoing. Um, we have a Medicaid consensus that's been switched from ongoing 27 million to one time million. Now I know it's Alpine year and I understand that, but when we think about the people that we're trying to balance the budget on our kids, it's alarming to me that we would choose this line items to do that. So with that, I'm not supporting this budget and I I wish that we could start listening to the things that our school districts wanted instead of telling them what they needed. Thank you.

  4. Senate President Ronald M. Winterton (presiding)50:22

     Thank you. Senator Riebe. Senator Brammer.

  5. Sen. Brammer50:26

     Mr. Senator Balderree, will you yield? I

  6. Sen. Heidi Balderree50:30

     Will.

  7. Senate President Ronald M. Winterton (presiding)50:31

     Thank you Senator. Senator Brammer, go ahead.

  8. Sen. Brammer50:33

     Thank you. Can you tell me percentage wise, how much of the education budget was cut this year?

  9. Sen. Heidi Balderree50:39

     Senator Balderree Less than 1%. Eight tenths of a percent, 0.85%.

  10. Sen. Brammer50:46

      And then percentage wise, can you tell me what the increase overall to the education budget was? Senator Balderree?

  11. Sen. Heidi Balderree50:54

      Yes. Approximately 2.5% increase on top of the base budget.

  12. Sen. Brammer50:58

      Okay. So if I understand correctly, that would be a net 1.8% or so, something Correct. Senator Balderree. Okay. So, so while there may be some cuts, which is appropriate in certain programs, and, and I understand that there may be a concern that, you know, for the, you know, that there may be some cuts. The reality here as I read the budget, is that we increased on top of growth and inflation, uh, which were already in the base budget, we increased on top of that an additional 1.8%. Am I, am I seeing that correctly, Senator Balderree?

  13. Sen. Heidi Balderree51:39

      That's Correct.

  14. Senate President Ronald M. Winterton (presiding)51:40

      Okay. Thank you. Thank you Senator Fillmore.

  15. Sen. Lincoln Fillmore51:47

      Thanks, Mr. President. I, uh, having sat through this committee, uh, for many years and especially this year, uh, you know, this year it was different because the directions to identify, uh, you know, 5% of potential reductions was really clarifying. And so what that opened up for us was a real chance to look through, you know, our education budget's about $8 billion, and we had requests this year of, uh, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars more in funding. And so the exercise of saying, what are we already funding that's less important than what we could be funding, that is a tremendously good exercise. It's one that every business does every year. It's one that families do every year. Uh, it's one that we try to do every year. We cycle through it, you know, every five years. It's a good process we have here to identify it. We identified, uh, as, as the, the sponsor said, the, the chair of this appropriations committee said about $41 million, uh, in ongoing reductions that were things that are less important than what else we could fund. Uh, so for example, uh, we made a reduction to the, uh, the digital teaching and learning program. And that originally passed, uh, a little over a decade ago. And it was a very important program at that time because schools, uh, you know, working in the model they had did not have excess funding for integration of technology. But over the decade plus, since that's been in place, that's no longer the issue, right? Schools have resources that they need, uh, almost ev at most schools, uh, every student has access to a, uh, a device. Uh, many would argue in fact, we, you know, we're having arguments about that here, that there's potentially too much. So to be able to find that that program has served its purpose, well, it integrated technology into schools, it no longer needs a dedicated funding stream because what we've learned is schools are prioritizing that and funding it anyway. If we can take that funding and reprioritize it in ways that schools are asking for, that is a win for schools, for students without harming the use of technology in schools. I'd also like to point out something because I, I know that in some worlds when you increase something by 3%, it's a cut because you didn't increase it by 4%. But, uh, and, and, and, you know, that's what we have here with some of these things that look like reductions. Uh, what they really are though is just reductions in the rate of growth. And I know some people consider that to be a funding cut, but, uh, you know, if, if, if you take something that you could fund at 20 million and instead fund it at 19 million, that's not a $4 million cut, it's a $19 million increase. Um, uh, so I'm proud of the work that this committee did on this budget. I think it represents an, an investment. This bill unique to budget bills, looks paltry because most of what we did was done in the base budget bill. And so as we present it, you know, you look at this number and it's maybe not as big as you want to think, but that's, remember that that needs to be added to the $200 million that we already use to increase public education funding in the base budget bill. Uh, and in total, this represents an enormous investment in our public schools. Uh, it meets several of the priorities that the school districts have asked for, that the school board has asked for and represents the good work from, uh, the dedicated people of that committee to comb through and find ways that we could reprioritize money by reducing funding for, or eliminating funding for programs that have served their purpose or are not as effective and put them towards new programs that will increase effectiveness and outcomes for students. Thank, thank you. I'm gonna go to Senator Escamilla then.

  16. Senate President Ronald M. Winterton (presiding)55:35

      Senator Sandall. Senator Escamilla.

  17. Sen. Luz Escamilla55:37

      Thank. Thank you Mr. President. Question to the sponsor.

  18. Senate President Ronald M. Winterton (presiding)55:40

      Senator Balder has agreed to yield Go ahead. Yes,

  19. Sen. Luz Escamilla55:43

      Thank you, president. Um, just, I'm, I'm trying to make sure I can facilitate information to my constituents related to lines 3 92 to 3 94, where this is a policy change on, um, the way we value the WPU. This was not in, this is not in our statute. So this bill would add this process to the statute, and I think it ref goes back to, um, make reference to what the good senator, uh, Fillmore made a comment with the 3% versus a 4%. So the question to the sponsor, Mr. President, is in this case, are we lowering the WPU base on the language in 3 94 in lines 3 92 to 3 94,

  20. Senate President Ronald M. Winterton (presiding)56:31

      Senator Balderree.

  21. Sen. Heidi Balderree56:33

      So, um, I consider this like a haircut trim. So instead of getting, basically think of this, if, uh, if you're getting a raise instead of getting a 4% raise, they're only getting a 3% raise.

  22. Senate President Ronald M. Winterton (presiding)56:47

      Okay, Senator? Yeah. Senator Escamilla.

  23. Sen. Luz Escamilla56:49

      Thank you Mr. President. And that's, um, I appreciate that sponsor being, um, direct to the answer. And that's a concern, right? We're moving now from a a 3%, from a 4% to a 3%. This, this statutory change on the, on our, on our code will now make it so it will be the lesser of those two pieces. And in the case of 2026 fiscal year, it will be a 3% versus a 4%. Thank you.

  24. Senate President Ronald M. Winterton (presiding)57:20

      Thank you. I'm gonna, Senator Sandall, first.

  25. Sen. Scott D. Sandall57:23

      Senator Sandall. Thank You President. Uh, I, I wanna take just a minute and talk about, uh, um, thing that was just mentioned in testimony about cutting AI or technology. Uh, Senator Vickers, I, I, Mr. President, I want it to be understood that I believe that we are trying to take a deep look into what AI is going to do in our public school system. And we're gonna do this very carefully, uh, with the state school board, with the legislature, but there will be certain programs that have become obsolete that we've funded in the past. Uh, we need to gather together and we need to make sure that we get this right as we fund what will be a new platform somewhere with AI involved. So I, I think, uh, to Senator Fillmore's point, some of the things that we thought were good 10 years ago are going to need to be jettisoned as we move ahead. And, uh, I hope that we can all get on board and create the new paradigm, uh, without trying to hang on to the old things that will become obsolete. Thank you, Mr. President.

  26. Senate President Ronald M. Winterton (presiding)58:37

      Thank you. Senator Sandall. Now Senator Riebe for a second time.

  27. Sen. Kathleen A. Riebe58:42

      Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, my first question was to the budget. My next question is to the policy on line 5 35 to five 40. We're deleting those policy questions and now we're changing it to 5 41 where it says, um, distributed funds as needed. In the past it's been 90% of the available funds would be given, and now we're gonna take, and it used to be 10% as needed. Now all funds are going to be as needed. Um, how do we change that from saying this is 90% of the funds that are available and dedicated to now all of it being as needed. Would that be us coming up with our decisions for as needed by what basis? Senator Balderree?

  28. Sen. Heidi Balderree59:34

      So we, uh, we have made a decision to, um, as you talked about, so, um, passionately before a shift to include our USBE partners, more to bring them to the table more, to give them more autonomy over these decision making. As you, uh, I know you don't sit in the committee, but, um, we worked very closely with our part, our education partners, to come to these decisions in the budget. So much so that in fact that we had the support of the entire committee with the unanimous vote. Um, and that's our bipartisan committee members, and this is a shift that says we want to give, um, our USBE, um, partners more stewardship over the budget.

  29. Sen. Kathleen A. Riebe1:00:17

      Thank you. Thank you. Um, that has not been my experience with the state board recently. Uh, I know there's been a lot of contention with some of our board members, but you know, we have, um, I can look at $290 million that we have actually struggled to spend. We have $130 million going to the Utah fits all budget. That's right now in court we have $150 million School of Excellence where people, we can't even get people to go to, but we're still supporting that. And then we have SB one 19 for $16 million that is not supported by our school districts. So if were saying we're supporting our school districts and then I look at this tracking sheet and we don't agree with them, I have to disagree. I appreciate how much money we're spending in education. I appreciate all the funding that goes to our kids across the state to have them learning. And I appreciate the sport that we've given to our teachers, but when we give money with lots of restrictions and strings, it's not the same as providing funding for what our schools are asking for. Thank you.

  30. Senate President Ronald M. Winterton (presiding)1:01:20

      Thank you. Now to Senator Kwan

  31. Sen. Karen Kwan1:01:24

      President, uh, I am also going to speak to the change in policy on lines three 90 to 3 94. That was brought up earlier that when we're talking about, uh, helping our families to be economically stable, it, it talks about it, it to me what that means is to know, understand what they're going to have from year to year. Um, and this change from, uh, the WPU the previous year to a consumer price index change, the lesser of would bring in some, um, economic instability in the sense that teachers may not under understand from year to year what their, uh, increase might be. The other thing that that, uh, worries me about this or concerns me about this change now is that we do have litigation on the Utah fits all scholarship that ties up or is tied up with, uh, teacher increases. And we're not sure with the courts have been, uh, very unpredictable in their decisions. So we're not sure what will happen with those teacher increases. So, uh, coupling those, uh, two outcomes can be a very big hit to our teacher salaries. Thank you.

  32. Senate President Ronald M. Winterton (presiding)1:02:42

      Thank you. Senator Kwan. Uh, seeing no further discussion, Senator Balderree summation and a motion?

  33. Sen. Heidi Balderree1:02:52

      Yes. Uh, I'll go back and just reiterate that, um, you know, there are years, several years in my career where I have not received a raise and it stinks. Um, in this case, the raise is smaller than anticipated. So instead of a 4%, it's a 3% and it's still an increase. And so, um, I have, I have a hundred percent faith in our legislature and especially in this body in the Senate as well as in the House, that, um, if for any reason that something should, uh, happen in, in the courts, uh, that we would be able to decouple that, uh, I don't think I have zero doubts about that. I know that we have this, the highest starting salary for a teacher range in our region and I'm proud of that. And I don't, we're not going backwards. So, um, I have confidence in this legislature and with that I am proud of the, this budget that we have. It's always difficult to make cuts. We did so, but we also made more increases and we had a unanimous vote and we had consensus. And with that, I move that senate I waive summation and, and say that Senate Bill two shall pass.

  34. Senate President Ronald M. Winterton (presiding)1:04:00

      Thank you. And the question is under suspension of the rule shall Senate bill two pass Roll call vote.

  35. Unknown speaker1:04:05

      Senator Vickers Baldy Aye. Lewin Brammer Aye. Bus Colmore Escamilla Fillmore Aye. Grover Aye. Harper Aye. Hankins Aye. Ipson Aye. Johnson. Aye. K Juab McKay Aye. Mikel Milner Musselman Owens pitcher Plum Rebi Sandal Stevenson Stevenson Stratton Vickers Weiler Wilson Winterton, president Adams

  36. Senate President Ronald M. Winterton (presiding)1:04:53

      Aye Senate bill to having received 23 a votes six nay votes zero being absent, passes his body and will be sent to the house for their consideration. Senator Sandall, thank

  37. Sen. Scott D. Sandall1:05:10

      You. Motion to encircle Senate Bill eight State Agency and Higher Education Compensation appropriations.

  38. Senate President Ronald M. Winterton (presiding)1:05:18

      Thank you. Motion to Uncer Senate Bill eight. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Will the motion passes. The bill is uncircled.

  39. Sen. Scott D. Sandall1:05:26

      Thank you. I move to delete and title and body, um, Senate bill eight

• Mar 4, 2026 House floor debate▶ Watch
  Transcript (5 turns)

  1. Speaker (presiding)18:17

     third Reading calendar, Senate Bill to Public Education Budget Amendments by Senator Balderree, the House sponsors Representative Whyte. Representative Whyte.

  2. Rep. Stephen L. Whyte18:29

     Thank you Mr. Speaker. Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to present SB two Public Education Budget Amendments. I'll be discussing three aspects of this bill. The first will be the budget reductions, the second budget increases, and the third statutory changes in the first area of budget reductions. This bill will identify a reduction of 0.85%, so less than 1% reduction. This will be 8.2 million one time and 41.7 million ongoing for a total combined of 49.9 million. These reductions are primarily affecting non lapsing balances and moderate growing balances, along with some targeted adjustments to some select programs. So the reductions will be 0.85% less than 1% in the second area of the bill will be budget increases. Budget increase in this bill will be 2.5% increase, which includes 42.6 million ongoing and 102.6 million one time for a total of 142 point million ongo uh, dollars increases. Some examples of these increases include 25 million ongoing for at-risk students. This provides additional WP funding for economically disadvantaged and English language learning students to help offset the higher cost of developing educational opportunities. Another increase is a 17.8 million one time for the restoration of school fees mitigation funding. This supplementary restores schools fees to LEAs one time in the fiscal year of 2026. This bill also includes an increase of 72.2 million of additional one-time funding from the public education economic stabilization restricted account. These increases really focusing on strategic initiatives, infrastructure partnerships, literacy support, career connecting, learning and innovation areas. A few examples of these increases include 35 million for the applied professional education experience centers 13.9 million for various technology programs, 5 million for grow your own special educators, 4.8 million for the USDB enrichment program. Correction, 3.8 million for student credential accounts and 2.5 million for reduced price school lunch. So in the area of increases, 2.2 0.5% increase totaling 142 point million. Now in the third area of this bill are some statutory changes. Section two and section four requires the State Board of Education to establish personnel and data standards for the USDB and to provide related reporting in section nine and Section 10, this corrects some duplicate funding of students participating in some certain online programs. And Section 11 authorizes the state superintendent in fiscal year 27 and 28 to transfer funds within the state board line items to support some administrative reorganization with required reporting to the legislature. That is the content of this specific bill. Now, SB two compliments HB one, the base budget funding for public education that we passed several weeks ago in HB one that increased the WPU by a 4.2% increase equivalent to 191.4 million ongoing and an additional 253 million increase in one time areas. So overall, as we look at SB two and HB one in public education this year, the legislature is increasing funding to public education by 5.9%. All focused on helping our students to succeed and supporting teachers and everyone who is working with our students so they can have combined success. This completes my presentation Mr. Speaker.

  3. Speaker (presiding)22:55

     Thank you Representative Whyte. Uh, discussion to the bill. Seeing none back. Your Representative Whyte for summation.

  4. Rep. Stephen L. Whyte23:04

     I'll waive. Thank you. Mr. Speaker has been wave volume

  5. Speaker (presiding)23:04

     I'll waive. Thank you. Mr. Speaker has been wave volume now be open on eight s SP two. Seeing now present, having voted voting is now closed. SB two passes this body with 70 s votes, one no vote and be sent to the Senate for its consideration. Madam Reading Clerk