A bill aimed at addressing an issue unique to rural school districts was vetoed on the final day that Governor Spencer Cox could sign or veto bills passed along to him from the 2026 legislative session. Governor Cox vetoed House Bill 462 ‘School Bus Internet Access’. Simply put, the bill, which passed in the House and Senate, would create a grant program to provide internet connectivity on school buses in rural school districts. The reason for the bill was the long hours that sport and extracurricular teams from rural districts spend traveling on buses for competitions that keep them from completing school work that often can only be completed on a chromebook or device while connected to the internet. In a letter explaining his veto, Governor Cox recognized that the longer bus rides add challenges but that his greater concern is over the amount of screen time teens already have access to and his belief that “kids simply need less screen time.” He emphasized that he would support measures to require schools to provide paper assignments for students traveling for extracurriculars so they could accomplish work without the need for internet and a chromebook.
