By Carmen Nesbitt | The Salt Lake Tribune | File photo

Gov. Spencer Cox vetoed a bill aimed at helping students in Utah’s most rural school districts access Wi-Fi during long bus rides.

“As a student who grew up in a rural district, I recognize the added challenge of longer bus rides for rural students,” Cox wrote Thursday in a letter to the Legislature explaining his veto.

“But I am very concerned about signaling to our students that we value more time spent on devices rather than more time interacting with one another face-to-face,” he continued.

The bill, HB462, would have only applied to school districts with fewer than 3,000 students, allowing them to apply for a grant to install internet in a limited number of school buses.

Roughly 43% of the state’s 41 school districts, or 18, would have benefited. The bill appropriated $338,500, according to its fiscal note.

Read more at SLTrib.com.

This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.