In this article, the author discusses that Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. is pledging to sign a bill that puts Utah education policy ahead of the No Child Left Behind Act. State education officials now hope to make the case to the U.S. Department of Education that Utah should not be penalized for failing to comply with the federal law. The Republican-led legislature's passage of the measure was the strongest act of defiance by a state against the 3-year-old law so far. While the state measure, which the governor plans to sign on May 2, 2005, does not immediately raise compliance issues, it eventually could put at risk some $76 million in annual federal education money.