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 [...]
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, there [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
Those who know me well know that I’m not opposed to an equitable, well-crafted voucher bill. In all of the discussions of HB 148, including its incarnations in past years, the one piece of information I’ve always wanted but never come across is an income chart showing how household income translates to voucher amounts. The [...]
The Deseret News ran an article about HB 68, which allocates state money to reimburse local districts for the cost of fee waivers. Rep. Merlynn Newbold, R-South Jordan, suggested looking at boosting the state’s per-student funding formula to get rid of fees altogether, if equity is the question. She and two others voted against the [...]
I’m at the Utah School Boards Association’s “Day on the Hill.” I’ll be live-blogging parts of the discussion and comments from those present. Some discussion of HB 234. I wasn’t completely paying attention (was working on a different topic), but it sounds like they’re missing the point here. Ass I read it, the bill grants [...]
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