I caught on TV tonight an education policy presentation by Julian Betts, Chair of the Department of Economics. Originally presented in April of this year, Dr. Betts discusses peer-reviewed research on testing, accountability systems, charter schools, vouchers, and merit pay systems.
No matter where you fall on these issues, I think it’s worth watching.
A few days ago, District Court Judge Dever granted the defendant’s (AG’s office) motion to dismiss the first two counts of the lawsuit questioning the constitutionality of last year’s (2008) SB2 (2nd substitute). After listening to the Judge ask both parties questions in court (back on March 26th), frankly I’m a bit surprised. According to [...]
It’s probably not as much of a hot topic since the State Board of Ed, in an effort to protect other parts of the education budget during these lean times, held back money for district performance pay programs pushed by our peerless legislature, but I suspect the conversation hasn’t wholly died. I may not [...]
Although public education was putatively held harmless during the budget cuts coming out of the recent special legislative session, the Minimum School Program (MSP) budget was reduced for fiscal year 2010 by $73,979,500. The State Board of Education was asked by the legislature to propose ways to achieve this reduction.
Friday in Board meeting, the [...]
Two years ago, there was some general concern about declining college enrollment. I posted about it. One one biggest reasons for the decline was the growing economy. I said then that there is an inverse relationship between economic strength and college enrollment.
The Trib has an article about how college enrollment is now increasing:
About 20.5 [...]
The legislature will be called into special session to reduce the current year’s budget by about $200 million. (See senatesite.com, SLTrib)
If I may be so bold as to make a suggestion, I suspect few in education would miss the $1 million appropriation for UPSTART (from the controversial SB2 second substitute, line 1108), which provides [...]
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 [...]
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 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 [...]
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 [...]
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