(KCPW News) Despite voting the bill down last month, the Utah House of Representatives reconsidered and passed a bill allowing school districts to sell and display advertising on school buses today. The bill was amended to only allow advertisements to cover 35 percent of the sides of a bus. However, that still wasn’t good enough for Representative Don Ipson.
“In my view we cannot sacrifice the potential of a safety distraction, or a catastrophic event, in that bus that could happen because we’ve done something to alter years of engineering and design into what a school bus should look like,” said Ipson.
The amended bill would not allow advertisements to be placed on the front or back of a bus. Another amendment would require school districts to use money generated by advertisements to go toward improving transportation services.
Representative John Dougall said the bill is the right move toward giving school districts more control.
“I’m asked to trust the schools with my most prized possession, my children, and I can’t trust them to figure out whether or not to advertise on a bus?” said Dougall. “I know this isn’t the perfect bill, but this is a move in the right direction to allow greater control for the school districts to figure out what’s best for their districts.”
The amended House Bill 199 passed on a 42-30 vote and now moves to the senate for consideration.
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