Archive for the 'Education' Category

The press release from the governor’s office is below. I don’t have time for commentary at the moment, other than to say I’m given to understand the governor simply took the ranked order from the nominating committee as his selection. Sara Brate over at the Accountability blog complied a list of the committee’s […]

Filed Version of SB2 Lawsuit

Posted by Tom on June 4th, 2008

The suit suit filed contesting the constitutionality of Senate Bill 2 (2nd Substitute) has been in the news and come up in the bloghive. I haven’t seen anyone post a copy of the complaint—I happen to have one, so here it is.

Complaint [pdf]

The two constitutional sections at play are Article VI Section 22 and […]

Two Excellent Education Articles

Posted by Tom on March 28th, 2008

Two excellent articles dealing with public education on a national level (hat tip to Mark Peterson for sleuthing them out):
“Texas’ 10% admission could teach colleges a thing or two,” USA Today. An interesting article about increasing the diversity in public universities without giving racial preference scores. The article doesn’t address it, but the suggestion […]

State Board of Education

Posted by Tom on March 17th, 2008

Today is the final day to file for elected office.
After some deliberation, I decided last year to not seek a second term on the Utah State Board of Education. (District 13) The decision was made for several reasons, and more recent events have only solidified my decision.
A list of current candidates may be found […]

The Board of Ed, the AG, and Statutory Authority

Posted by Tom on July 6th, 2007

In my last post I covered the relationship between the Attorney General and the State Board of Education as defined by the Utah Constitution. As promised, this post will cover how the relationship is defined in statute. The same disclaimers as last time apply.
The constitutional relationship was much easier to define. For starters, […]

One of the issues the keeps rearing its head is the relationship between the Attorney General’s office and the Utah State Board of Education. The Education Interim Committee [1] met on the issue.
Standard disclaimers: I speak only for myself. I am not a lawyer.
Because it was surely intended to be an impartial meeting between […]

Utah Supreme Court Decision

Posted by Tom on June 8th, 2007

The Utah Supreme Court just ruled in a unanimous (4-0) decision that (contrary to the opinion of the Attorney General) HB 174 could not stand alone, separate and apart from HB 148. Read the full decision (pdf).
Before reading the decision to those assembled, the presiding Justice prefaced his comments, including the following (as best […]

Vacuous Vocabulary?

Posted by Tom on May 31st, 2007

The Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries and the Houghton Mifflin Company have published (2003) a book titled 100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know.
It’s an interesting list. Some words are used in science (chromosome, gamete, mitosis, quasar), some in history/politics (antebellum, gerrymander, laissez faire, oligarchy). Others are useful to understand modern society […]

Board Voucher Action (Press Release)

Posted by Tom on May 29th, 2007

The following is the full text of a news release from USOE. I’ve added links to relevant documents; the final order is available too.
SALT LAKE CITY - The Utah State Board of Education voted 10-4 today not to implement a voucher program in Utah based solely upon the provisions contained in House Bill 174, […]

Debate and Groupthink

Posted by Tom on May 25th, 2007

I’ve refrained from posting on the voucher debate for a variety of reasons. But I realized some of my comments on other blogs were longer than some of my posts here.
The following comes with the hopefully unnecessary caveat that the opinions stated here are my own, and may not be representative of any group or […]