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SB142, by Senator Howard Stephenson, passed the Senate on Monday. This bill requires that all publicly elected officials have their telephone and email addresses available to the public. This bill also makes a point that Community Council members are included as publicly elected officials. Moreover, the contact information of Community Council members must be made available on the school’s website and in a mailing to every household with a student at the school.

The arguments in favor of this bill are straight forward: we should have access to those who represent our interests. One of the concerns of those in opposition to this bill is that having personal contact information on a website, open to anyone in the world, would discourage volunteers from becoming candidates for their schools’ community councils. Individuals who want to lobby community council members for political purpose would be able to reach any and all members. The sponsor was adamant that the contact information be for each member directly and not be routed through the school or another person or organization.

I would not oppose having the contact information of elected members of Community Councils being made available to their constituents. Perhaps this could be done by posting email addresses on protected websites. I can get information about my child's grades on a website that I must log into. Only parents of students registered for school can get to this site. That might be a good place to post contact information of volunteer Community Council members.

Report Cards

When my child comes home from school with a grade in a class, particularly a low grade, I want to know what that grade represents – whether it is missing homework or not understanding the subject matter or talking to a classmate out of turn. If the only grade information I had was a grade point average for all classes, I would not find it very helpful.

Imagine getting a report card that averaged all the grades of all the students in all the classes in the school. This would not really tell me anything about my child’s education but this is exactly what one legislator wants to do and is claiming that HB59 will provide more transparency about the school performance. In addition, the assignment of public school grades would be distributed in a bell curve. That means that they would assign a certain number of A’s and F’s, a greater number of B’s and D’s, and most schools would receive a grade of C.

We currently have information about the performance of students in individual schools based on the UPASS data. This is comprehensive information and it is available to the public. With this much information, I wonder why another grade that gives less information is necessary.

The sponsor predicts that parents with children in a school that receives a low grade will be motivated to pitch in, to help improve their child’s school. Interestingly, there are similar provisions in the very unpopular “No Child Left Behind”. When test scores are below an acceptable level, NCLB required that the parents of that school’s students be allowed to choice out of the school. It recognizes that the reaction of many adults would be to remove their children from a school that is labeled as underperforming.

Maintaining a bell curve may be tricky if the most-involved parents move their children to the highest graded schools. Raw test scores that provide the data for assigning grades would eventually be distributed on an inverted bell curve – high numbers of schools at the low and high ends with the middle dropping out. Proposals to tie teacher pay to student performance on tests would make it even more divided. I feel uncomfortable about creating an education system made up of elite and substandard schools.

Every study I have seen on student performance has concluded that the greatest influencing factor is parental involvement and home environment. Schools can overcome disadvantages that come from the socio-economic backgrounds of their students but it requires a big effort and increased financial resources.

If the Legislature wants to assign grades to schools, and wants to keep the costs of doing so down, they might just as well assign the grades based on the students’ families’ average socio-economic background. This bill would have the same effect. Overcoming the effects of poverty and social status on education requires greater funding of education than what the Legislature seems willing to grant.

The adage that “you get what you pay for” is often true. In this case, I think it would be fitting to rename HB59 to be “Grading the Legislature’s Commitment to Public Education”.

A Optional Kindergarten Day

One of the innovations that Provo District has piloted in the past couple of years is Optional Extended-day Kindergarten (OEK). Currently, children who are identified as needing assistance to be ready for Kindergarten can be placed in a longer program of Kindergarten, if the parents request it. These children are considered “at risk” because it has been shown that if a child enters regular Kindergarten behind most other students, they fall increasingly behind in subsequent years. Data from the pilot program show that if they receive the extra help during their Kindergarten year, they catch up rapidly and stay up with their peers.

There is a cost to this specialized program but it is much less than remediation and frustration for the children in subsequent years. Still, the Legislature must approve the funding for OEK and one legislator is proposing an alternative to the program. HB111 would prohibit schools from offering OEK but instead would allow Kindergarten students to apply to attend both the morning and the afternoon sessions of regular half-day Kindergarten. These students would get a repeat of the lesson material, a repeat of the activities, but with a different set of classmates and perhaps with a different teacher. OEK offers a comprehensive curriculum that brings children up to speed from their level. If you find yourself in a situation where the conversations that surround you and expectations other have of you are all over your head, does it help to repeat the instructions twice? I believe that rather than helping, this will lead to even more frustration for these at-risk children.

If you have experience with the OEK program in the past few years, your legislators should hear from you. It is important to point out that OEK is not just a matter of time in a Kindergarten classroom but a different way of teaching children who need specialized help. HB111 has not yet been heard in committee.

Dipping into School Trust Lands Funds

The School Trust Lands of Utah in the past decade have become a growing source of education revenue. The lands themselves bring annual payments in the form of dividends that by the State Constitution must go directly to the school districts. The Trust is similar to a savings account; the earnings can be compared to the interest from that account and are what is sent to the school districts. Members of your School Community Council decide how your share of the Trust Lands money is spent for your school. The Legislature cannot control how the earnings are spent nor can they spend down the Trust. It is essential that we preserve the Trust and maintain the local control of the Trust Lands’ earnings.

HB269 creates a commission on Civic and Character Education to lead out on a focus on civic and character education in public schools. Civics is already part of the core curriculum in public schools and there are already many programs of character education in our local schools. However, HB269 requires that this commission and the program they create are paid for with 1% of the Trust Lands dividend funds annually. There may be a constitutional challenge to this bill but regardless of any challenge, I stand opposed to the legislature taking even 1% of the Trust Lands funds that go directly to the schools. In addition, a mandate for a statewide curriculum change should come from the State Office of Education and not be written into state law.

The New Session is Underway

Another legislative session for the Utah State Legislature has begun.

I keep hearing the buzzwords “Structural Deficit Repair”. Of course, we know there have been big budget problems lately. The amount of money coming in has been less than the cost of running the State and since we are required to have a balanced budget, for the last two years some of the shortages have been covered with “one-time money”. That is like paying your grocery bill from your savings account. You can do that for a little while but unless you can get a steady stream of money coming in from somewhere else soon, eventually you run out of savings and you better plan to stop eating!

Legislators have committed to bring the cost of government down to the amount of money that current taxes are bringing in. They don’t want to raise any taxes so hold onto your hats! -- we can expect another round of budget cuts this year.

If we knew how long the effects of the recession would last, we could ration the rainy day fund and other resources. But that is something no one knows.

The cuts that are being proposed may also prolong the recession. Cuts in services leave more and more people relying on public aid. One department meets their budget by cutting positions and that increases the number of people looking for jobs elsewhere. The private sector contractors for the state have fewer orders to fill and so they, like the rest of the private sector, are impacted. They aren't hiring either.

When there is high unemployment, it is a great time to retool with additional skills to make yourself more employable. Enrollment in institutions of higher education are growing all over the state. The problem is, public institutions of high education are facing budget cuts too. To meet their budgets, either the educators and administrators or the students will suffer -- or, as is most likely, both. Fewer workers, more demand for public services, and fewer options for additional job training will undoubtedly extend the recession and its attendant unemployment.

I don't envy the legislators their decisions but I have a bias toward preparing for the future. I am convinced that maintaining opportunities for training, to make workers more self-reliant, is among the most important things we can do.

Aftermath

The numbers came in after the election and in spite of my year-long full-time campaign, the voters went with their incumbent legislator.
Disappointed? Yes. But I can look back on the campaign and be satisfied that I did all that I could have to campaign for a different outcome.

I spent Wednesday, November 3rd, collecting signs. Some were no longer in the yards. A few were defaced. If you have a sign that I didn't retrieve, please contact me and I will pick it up.

The communities in this Legislative District have greater meaning to me after walking so many of the streets and visiting with so many of the people who live here. I have found interesting friends in every neighborhood. I am so glad I had the opportunity to discover these friends.

I am particularly grateful to the many volunteers who offered their helping hands and generous contributions. They gave countless hours of calling and walking, juggling signs, fliers, and voter lists. My face and my words were on the fliers but their work helped put them in the hands of thousands of voters. I offer my thanks to these faithful helpers.

One of the many messages of condolence I have received recently, contained this phrase: No good thing is ever wasted". It sums up how I feel about this campaign. It has been a good thing; the time and effort and expense has therefore not been wasted.