S.B. 272 Transportation Funding Revisions: transcript

Senate Education Committee, Feb 18, 2026

1. Committee chair1:26:34

   Senator Baldry, uh, transportation flooding revisions. Uh, I notice you have a substitute. Would you like to move that substitute SB 2 72? Yes, please. Okay. Do you wanna make that motion?

2. Sen. Heidi Balderree1:26:48

   So moved. Okay.

3. Committee chair1:26:50

   So the motion is to delete entitled, embody, uh, Senate Bill 2 72 and replace it with first substitute Senate Bill 2 72. Transportation funding revisions. Uh, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Chair rules? That is unanimous. Thank you.

4. Committee chair1:27:15

   Okay. To the bill, to the substituted bill. Go ahead, Senator Baldry. So,

5. Sen. Heidi Balderree1:27:19

   Uh, the change in the substitute was simple. Uh, it just moves, uh, the responsibility from the, the public education, or excuse me, from our LFA to the USBE, that that is all.

6. Committee chair1:27:33

   Okay. And now to the bill.

7. Sen. Heidi Balderree1:27:35

   Thank you. Um, so this bill is focused on leveling the playing field for charter school funding. The bill primarily seeks to allow charter schools to become eligible for state transportation funding starting in 2028. A benefit currently reserved almost exclusively for traditional school districts. It expands freedom by increasing school choice viability for many low income families. A charter school's only a choice if there's a way to get the child there. So removing transportation barriers makes educational freedom more practical. And, uh, I'd just like to turn the time now over to my guest, uh, Royce Van Tassel.

8. Royce Van Tassell, Executive Director, Utah Association of Public Charter Schools1:28:14

   Good morning, friends. Um, this is actually a very simple bill. There are a lot of, frankly, significant policy questions. Start By, Uh, sorry. Thank you. Telling us who you represent and who you are, even though we know you. Thank you. Uh, Royce Van Tassel, uh, Utah Association of Public Charter Schools. Um, and, and the Bills, uh, just directs the State Board of Education to work with the fiscal analysts office over the next year and a half and say, let's figure out some of these complex, uh, policy questions that we've addressed already on the school district side. Uh, such as, uh, how do we decide who, how far a charter school has to, um, transport a child? Conceivably, I mean, this would be absurd, but it illustrates the point. School districts have a boundary, and so they're gonna provide transportation within that boundary. Charter schools have a statewide boundary. So what does transportation mean in an environment like this? Uh, Senator Hinkins ran, uh, an appropriation several years ago to help, uh, rural charter schools, uh, address this. Um, and this is designed to say, let's, uh, make sure that all of our, uh, public education system has, uh, a meaningful, uh, mechanism to provide transportation. Um, current, uh, statute, uh, says that the legislature will provide up to 85%, uh, of the funding for transportation for school districts. Uh, historically, I think the high watermark was somewhere in the neighborhood of 68%. Um, and our goal is to get, uh, that above the 0% that, uh, charter schools currently get. So we want to figure out all of those policy questions and come back, uh, in preparation, there would be a follow up legislation that says, here's what those policy options should look like. Um, and, and we'll pass that at that time. But this just says, let's, uh, figure out the answers to those, um, sometimes thorny policy questions.

9. Committee chair1:30:13

   Thank you. So does that conclude your presentation?

10. Royce Van Tassell, Executive Director, Utah Association of Public Charter Schools1:30:16speaker not certain

    It does. We're gonna come back

11. Committee chair1:30:18

    to the committee for discussion. Senator Hinkins, go

12. Sen. David P. Hinkins1:30:20

    Ahead. I was just wondering, uh, there, the substitute doesn't have a fiscal note attached to it as of yet. I don't know if it hasn't caught up yet or not. So I was just curious if they knew how much this was gonna cost.

13. Sen. Heidi Balderree1:30:34

    The, the, um, substitute just came out, uh, I think yesterday. So the fiscal note is still catching up.

14. Sen. David P. Hinkins1:30:40

    That's why I say I, yeah. Any idea how much is going?

15. Sen. Heidi Balderree1:30:43speaker not certain

    I don't know what the, uh, what the cost that the state board may have in terms of that, um, uh, analysis. Many ways, this is a partner, uh, with Senate Bill 180 1, um, that, or 180 6 that Senator Baldry is also doing, which says, Hey, we've got some difficult policy questions around base funding. And this would be part of, I think, the same analysis.

16. Sen. David P. Hinkins1:31:09speaker not certain

    I don't see that that fiscal note would change much based on that, but, okay.

17. Committee chair1:31:15

    Go ahead, Senator Eby.

18. Sen. Kathleen A. Riebe1:31:17

    Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, so we constantly start these conversation with leveling the playing field, and it's not a level playing field, and I'm not even gonna go into that conversation. But we don't fund public school education right now for transportation. We don't fund it at the required 85%. And so this would be including this. And we also have students that choose to leave their district to go to another district. Would, would we be then funding that as well with this bill, or is it just charter schools?

19. Sen. Heidi Balderree1:31:50

    This isn't actually funding any Bill, Senator Rebe. Um, this is saying there are, as you point out, some challenging policy questions, and let's study what those policy, uh, options should be, what that policy that the legislature should adopt looks like and come back with recommendations. So that beginning in 2028, we have a framework to adopt.

20. Sen. Kathleen A. Riebe1:32:13

    Thank you. So our parents choose to go to another school. They choose to leave a neighborhood school. They choose to go to someplace that's further away. I mean, it, it, this is the choice they're making to do other things. And so I just, I cannot support a study of this. I can't support funding it. Um, we asked to have a parallel system, and I just don't think that this is where we should be investing our time and energy. Thank you.

21. Committee chair1:32:43

    Any other discussion, uh, to the bill? Seeing none, I'm going to go to members of the public, anyone from the public, like to speak to this come forward. State your name for the record and, and, uh, love to hear from you.

22. Ben Horsley, Superintendent, Granite School District1:33:04

    Hey, Ben Horsley, granite School District Superintendent. Thanks for giving me an opportunity to speak to this bill. Um, I share some of the concerns from the, the primary bill and I respect what the, the sponsor is trying to accomplish. But I think there's, uh, an inaccurate narrative being placed here because if we're truly providing, um, transportation for all choice, then those 25% of students that are exercising ch school choice within Granite School District right now should also be included within this study. In this provision. Let me be clear. If we're going to provide transportation for any family that wants to exercise school choice, that should apply to traditional public education students as well as charter school students. So I, I think leveling the playing field is, is a good question. I'm not denying that question, but the, the notion that this just would apply to charter schools, uh, denigrates, the 25% of families within Granite School District are 53,000 students that are currently exercising school choice within granite school district boundaries. I don't know what that number looks like across the board, but my assumption is it's roughly the same. It's about 12 to 13% of students exercising school choice across all of the LEAs in, in the state. So this is a big fiscal note. Um, this is a big thing to tackle. My fear with the current, uh, formula established in the original bill is it would also denigrate, uh, uh, our ability to fund rural routes. Um, and that would denigrate our ability to provide transportation in much needed locations where they don't have charter options. So I, I'm not, uh, I'm not, uh, opposed to choice. I'm not opposed, um, to, uh, providing certain options. I just wanna make sure the kids in Granite School District, whose families are exercising choice within the traditional public education system, also have the ability to receive that transportation funding. Because right now we're spending over $1.3 million on unfunded routes in Granite School District to afford our families those options and to provide for hazardous routes special education funding routes that are not being funded right now. So there is a, that's just granite's numbers. I can only imagine what that looks like statewide. So this isn't something I'm opposed to studying. Um, but again, let's make sure we're accurate in understanding what leveling the playing field really means. And I look forward to working with the sponsor, um, to addressing some of those questions.

23. Committee chair1:35:40

    Thank you. Any other comments? Come forward. State your name for the record and go ahead, tell us who you represent

24. Julie Jackson, resident, Granite School District1:35:48

    to. Hi there. Make sure you Sign in. I'm, yeah, there's not a sign in sheet right here. He's got, oh, Ben took it. Okay. Okay. Um, my name's Julie Jackson. I am a school board member in Granite, and also I am on the Utah School Boards Association. I'm here to represent myself today because none of those bodies have taken an official position on this bill. Um, you know, in my school district, we have really a lot of great opportunities. We have an IB program in Skyline that lots of people want to go be a part of. We have, um, a dual immersion magnet school where every single kid in the whole school learns Spanish and and English. And, um, we have STEAM academies and we have, we have all kinds of options that kids who don't live in the boundary of those schools would love to take advantage of in the same ways that they'd love to take advantage of, um, what's exciting about the charter school that is near them. And, um, lots of those kids are not able to have those options be because they need the transportation in the same ways that Senator Balderree is talking about with this bill. And so, um, I, I agree with the idea that if we're going to frame this of as, let's make sure people get choice, we need to make sure that they truly do have all the choice, um, and that it doesn't simply, um, allow them, I mean, currently we've said we're going to provide everybody with one choice, and that one choice is the public school. Um, and if we're going to say, now we're going to provide transportation to all choices, we gotta really make sure we understand what that means. So, um, yeah, I, I hope that you'll, uh, vote not to support this bill.

25. Committee chair1:37:40

    Thanks. Thank you.

26. Lexi Cunningham, Executive Director, Utah School Superintendents Association1:37:47

    Good morning, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Lexi Cunningham, representing USSA and USBA. We do not have a formal position on this bill, but I would like to, um, as you're considering this, and if you consider the, the working group or the study group that will be put together, um, really look at that 85%. For years, we had worked with the legislator to get districts to the 85% for reimbursable routes, and that was multiple years of a commitment that legislators made. And I heard, you know, we got up into the, the sixties every year I have superintendents and board members ask, when are we gonna revisit this? When are we gonna look at the 85% again? So whatever you you do, whether it's working group or study, please consider looking at that 85% and how we can help all of our districts with transportation. Thank you.

27. Committee chair1:38:36

    Thank you. Any other comments? Are there any online? Seeing none, we're gonna come back to the committee. Senator Hinkins, go ahead.

28. Sen. David P. Hinkins1:38:46

    Yeah, thank you. I think this is just opening up a can of worms in my opinion. I have, uh, school districts like down in, uh, Garfield County that, uh, children that are living in Animo, Utah are going to Junction High School, which is in the Piute school district. And so maybe they'd like to go to the Panguitch School District, which that is part of their county. Also in LaSalle, uh, up in Spanish Valley, just south of Moab, that's in San Juan County. Those kids are going to the mo to the Grand County School District. They would probably like to go to Monticello, which would be their, uh, actual school district that would be in their county as well as in, uh, El Elgin, Utah, which is near Green River, uh, across the river. They would like to, they're going to Green River, uh, which is Emery School District, but they would maybe like to go to Moab. We're not supplying those students with, uh, transportation and, uh, because of the distance. And so I think that once we start down this path, there's, it's a path to no return. And so I'm opposed to this bill completely, and so I, I can't support it.

29. Committee chair1:39:52

    Okay. Uh, Senator Baldry, you wanna make a motion?

30. Sen. Heidi Balderree1:39:58

    Uh, I do, but I'll, I'll just like to have a closing statement if I may. Yeah, go ahead. So, yeah, just wanted to address some of the concerns that I've heard today. And, uh, you know, I heard from Mr. Horsley, you know, they've got 25% unfunded. Well, charter schools have 0%, so, um, I don't disagree with those who are upset or a concern that, you know, this 85% that they've been promise has not been, those promises have not met. But again, we're talking about 0% versus someone who's not getting their 85% or only getting 25% versus charters who are currently getting zero. This removes the prohibition and looks at a study to decide what that looks like. And I'm okay to open that can of worms. I, you know, it might be uncomfortable, but this bill, and, and specifically regarding the rural, uh, districts and those who are worried that this will take away money or, or hurt rural districts, I absolutely, uh, would not want to do that. Um, it, it, the bill sets a delayed start date of 2028 precisely so that the legislature can find what works and what won't harm existing district routes. We aren't asking for a smaller Piute, we're asking to bake a Piute that feeds every public student. And charter schools don't have boundaries. So busing is, you know, um, when people say, oh, it's impossible, well, we're not mandating door-to-door service. This BA bill allows for charter schools to compete for funding so that they can innovate, whether that's regional hubs, carpool grants, contracted services. I wanna give 'em the tools to try. And so with that, um, I'll conclude my presentation and make a motion that we pass out with a favorable recommendation Senate, a bill to 72 to the full body of the Senate.

31. Committee chair1:41:49

    Okay. So the motion is to pass out, uh, for substitute Senate Bill 2 72 favorable recommendation, discussion on the motion. Senator Riebe, go ahead.

32. Sen. Kathleen A. Riebe1:42:01

    Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. When we went down this road with charter schools, it was founded on no transportation. And this is a bait and switch to the people of the state of Utah. We are not funding education in our districts to our requirement. And this would open this up further. And now you're asking to have a preferential transportation treatment for charter schools as opposed to inter-district students. So when we think about what we started down the road with this founding of charter schools, and now we keep saying, I wanna level the playing field. That's not what you intentionally asked for at the beginning. And so the people of Utah need to understand the, the start was this, that we weren't going to pay for buses to go from Sandy up to Mann from, um, Cottonwood Heights over to, um, Salt Lake City. It's, it's not even, um, economically efficient. So these are the choices that parents are making, and part of that choice is to provide their own transportation. Thank you.

33. Committee chair1:43:14

    Thank you. So, seeing no other lights, uh, we're gonna place the motion, but I, I need to come back to you to some first.

34. Sen. Heidi Balderree1:43:24

    Sure. Um, I would just say, um, that there is no, this isn't preferential treatment. There is been no treatment, and this seeks to, to, to look at that option. And, um, I am, I'm still interested in pursuing this study, and I think that we could find out a lot of good things by, by going there. So with that, I'll, uh, conclude my summary.

35. Committee chair1:43:49

    Thank you. So the motion is to send out first substitute SB 2 72 with a favorable recommendation. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? No. No. So that's two to two, so it fails. Thank you. Thank you. Okay.