I must be on a few Utah email lists still. Kim Burningham emailed me this afternoon regarding a potential bill (as yet, unnumbered) in the Utah Legislature regarding the selection of Board of Education members in Utah. Kim’s email offered an opportunity to explore the rationale behind my position, to wit, open general elections are [...]
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.
Nearly two months ago (has it really been that long?) Jeremy posed a thoughtful question following a post on campaign finance. What do you make of arguments which state that disclosure is enough and that caps aren’t needed? If voters know immediately where candidates are getting their funding they can usually pretty well decide whether [...]
The Trib has an editorial decrying Utah’s campaign finance laws. I happen to agree with their position, but I don’t feel like the public has reacted with anything beyond apathy. During the last election cycle, a handful of candidate were accused (some, rightfully so, IMNSHO) of being a bit too cozy with certain contributors. In [...]
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 be [...]
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 [...]
As part of my MBA program, I’m taking a class on teams. Last week we discussed power dynamics in groups. I found the discussion interesting as it relates to state politics. I’ve copied my notes (which are effectively copies of the instructor’s slides) below: Power corruptsEffects on power holders: Self-serving attributions Ingroup favoritism Outgroup derogation [...]
My son’s first-grade class must have been talking about politics. He came home from school last week telling us about the election they had. He was excited to tell us he voted for “Morocco Obama.” (Apparently his name sounded cooler.)
I was surfing John Gruber’s Daring Fireball, and he linked to an article on programming and journalism. The article itself didn’t do anything for me, but the way John described the link connected some synapses for me. (I wish I could recover what it was—something about exposing government APIs to journalists.) Utah does pretty well [...]
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