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A bill to tweak requirements when it comes to how students recite the Pledge of Allegiance in Utah schools earned preliminary Senate approval Monday.
SB223, which the Senate passed unanimously on second reading Monday, would require the pledge to be recited classroom-by-classroom each morning, rather than, for example, over a school loudspeaker. It would also require junior high and high school students to recite the pledge each morning, whereas now they only must recite it once a week. Students would take turns leading the pledge in each classroom.
Individual students would still be allowed to not participate if they so chose.
"I feel we need to get back to the basics, to a time in our country when we valued loyalty to God and country and we had an opportunity to express that loyalty every morning," said bill sponsor Sen. Aaron Osmond, R-South Jordan.
The Senate must now approve the bill one more time before it advances to the House.