A majority of Utahns believe a 10th state college should be created specifically for vocational and technical education.
A poll conducted by Dan Jones & Associates for the Deseret News and KSL Television shows that 65 percent of Utahns believe the best resolution to the decades-old dispute over control of applied technology training would be to make the state's five applied technology centers and their related educational programs their own entity.
Lawmakers, Gov. Michael Leavitt and public and higher education representatives have been meeting the past two weeks to formulate the basis of a bill that could be presented at a special legislative session Leavitt plans to call this summer.
A bill that would have created the technical college and in effect switched control of applied technology to higher education from public education was argued to the last minute the last night of the 2001 legislative session without resolution.
More than a third (36 percent) said they "definitely favor" setting up a proposed Utah College of Applied Technology, and 29 percent said they "probably favor" the notion.
Of the more than 600 respondents surveyed last week, 14 percent "definitely oppose" the idea — the same percentage who reported that they either didn't know or didn't care about the issue. About 7 percent said they "probably oppose" the idea.
Demographics of those in the poll show that the least educated of those favoring creating the new college like the idea more than college graduates do. Support for the idea is strong across all income brackets, from less than $15,000 household income annually to more than $75,000 — the single largest income category of 107 people interviewed.
Rep. Ron Bigelow, R-West Valley City, who has been assigned by House leadership to find compromises in the ATC standoff, said in a meeting at the Capitol on Wednesday that most of the issues have been resolved.
"Certainly there is no consensus at this point," Bigelow said. "There were a number of issues not addressed by earlier legislation and some of the language contradicted itself. We've had a chance to review that the past two months."
One proposal in new legislation being formulated is to increase by up to six the number of members of the state Board of Regents, the governing board for higher education that will likely get responsibility for the ATCs. That would create a 21-member board, which is appointed by the governor, to oversee the state's colleges and universities.
A concern voiced by the state Board of Education is that if the ATCs become part of higher education, trade and technical education services for high school-age students will be lost in the regents' primary function of overseeing academic degree-oriented programs.
Placing additional members on the regents who have backgrounds in technical education is an option designed to quell public education's fear that turning over the ATCs will drastically change their mission.
The state Board of Education has had authority over applied technology education since 1918. It believes that the programs have been successful despite the lack of access to technical training in the Salt Lake and Tooele areas.
Growing criticism of the board for not providing enough classes instigated a review of applied technology education in the state. That led to a legislative task force, which made recommendations that became a bill that was ultimately approved in the House but was modified in the Senate before ultimately stalling.
The state School Board, which had never really supported any change, has said it can fix the lack-of-access problem. It adopted a resolution earlier this month stating it supports none of the alternatives, and that a successful program will only suffer by tinkering with it.
"But if we stay with the status quo, then we only serve a part of the public," Bigelow said. "This is a very complex issue, and the public and legislators are still learning and trying to understand the ramifications."
E-mail: jthalman@desnews.com