Get an answering machine

I wrote about SB142 in an earlier post. It requires all elected officials to have their direct contact information available to the public. It affects public schools particularly because members of School Community Councils are elected officials. It has now passed the Senate and the House and is on its way to the Governor's office for his signature.

It was amended along the way to say that email addresses and phone numbers must be posted online “if available”. That means that members of Community Councils who don’t have a computer and therefore no direct email availability, aren’t required to get a computer with internet access in order to serve – same with a phone.

The other thing I think of with regard to this bill is the amendment that added the word "directly". This means that if you want to contact the Governor, you should be able to call a phone number that goes to him directly. Will his secretary or intern answer the phone? Will this be considered direct? If it is allowed, it will definitely be a disadvantage to School Community Council members that they do not have personal secretaries or interns.

I would feel better if the posted contact information were only available to their constituents, for example through password-protected PowerSchool, but I am not certain that this would satisfy the new law.

Holding the Reins of Education

The Senate debated SJR9, the resolution that would amend the State Constitution so that education, K-12 and higher education (UVU, MATC, U of U, etc.), would become a department in the Governor’s administration, subject to the rules made by the legislature, instead of being controlled by the elected State Board of Education. The resolution passed the Senate with a two-thirds majority and will now be sent to the House. If it passes the House with a two-thirds majority, it will be on the November ballot in 2012, when voters can decide whether to amend the State Constitution this way. As rigorous as this may seem, remember that last November every Constitution amendment question on the ballot was approved by the voters.

There is another resolution removing control from the State Board of Education, as is currently a provision in the State Constitution. SJR1 would have put the control of education strictly in the hands of the legislature. While SJR9 is moving forward, the sponsor of SJR1 is dropping his resolution in favor of SJR9.

Those who are guarding the interest of the School Trust Lands have a concern about this resolution. The management of the School Trust (SITLA) is a department under the office of the Governor. Public education is the beneficiary of the Trust. It is bad fiduciary policy for the manager of a trust to be the same person as the beneficiary.

In regard to the election of members to the State Board of Education, the excitement to make the elections partisan seems to be cooling and I believe it is because it could be found unconstitutional. The State Constitution prohibits partisan qualifications for employment by the public schools. Since the Board members are paid to serve, they are considered employees. There is still a bill calling for partisan elections but I have heard rumors that it may be abandoned.

Spring Ahead, Fall Behind

If you are bugged by the changes on and off of Daylight Savings time each year, Representative Wilcox has drafted a bill you will like. It calls for Utah to discontinue the time changes for Daylight Savings Time and just stay with Mountain Standard Time all year long.

Daylight Savings Time has never made sense to me. I won't miss it if it goes away. It will still be a problem to keep track of the other states who use it but at least it won't disturb my sleep patterns.

I can’t predict how this bill will be received; it doesn't look like it is moving right now. I’ll be sure to let you know before the next time change!

Update on OEK

The Provo School District has been offering Optional Extended-day Kindergarten (OEK) at some schools for children who need help getting prepared for mainstream first grade. The results of this program has been very positive; however, funding for this program has run out so if it would be continued, the legislature would have to include it as a new item in the budget.

Currently, the proposal we are hearing is to allow districts to apply for Early Intervention Block Grants, which could be used for OEK, if that is how the district wants to use it. That may be a good way to fund it. The size of the grants will determine whether it is adequate.

Budget Forecast

A long-awaited report came to the Legislature this morning. As legislators were asked to make appropriations in this first half of the session, they made them with no information about how much money would be available. Meanwhile, state financial officers have been gathering data from all kinds of indicators in order to make their best guesses, called “revenue projections”. Everyone was watching for the revenue projections to give a better idea about how much tax money could be appropriated to government services. Those numbers came out today.

There are two sets of numbers. One set is one-time money. I am no expert but I believe that this is from Federal or other sources that can only be counted on one year at a time. The other is on-going funds based on income taxes or fees that will stay in place. Both sets of numbers show that the economy is recovering slowly but surely. There are more people employed and more taxes are being paid to cover the costs of government.

This is good news for public education and Medicaid. The Medicaid dollars go a long way to address medical needs of the most vulnerable people of the state. Each dollar spent by the state is matched two or three times in federal funding but the budget cuts have made even that commitment difficult.

Public Education won’t be asked to take cuts as deep as what we may otherwise seen. Still, it was pointed out, we have been falling behind for the past couple of years so it will take more than a small increase to get us to where we would like to be. And a small increase is what we have.

Student population growth has not been funded in the past two years and catching up will be very difficult. The Public Education appropriations committee claimed to have funded growth in the base budget but they were playing something of a shell game, moving funds from one education basket to another and calling it money for new student growth. Representative Mel Brown announced today that paying for growth would cost $60-million more than even the added revenue projections can cover. We are hearing that in order to pay for new student growth with new dollars, legislators would have to short some other areas of government, areas that are also feeling squeezed.

At least now, the legislators can now begin to divide the expected revenue more realistically.

Immigration legislation in the mill

If you think you know what is going on with the proposed legislation on illegal immigration, listening to the current debate on the House floor may be an interesting excursion.
I am currently sitting in the gallery and listening as the members of the Republican Caucus are anything but united. The discussions may go on for quite some time.
An "unfriendly" amendment has passed that does not allow law enforcement officers to act in opposition to their superior officers. It also removes the ability of citizens of the state to sue state agencies for alleged noncompliance.

Whether you like HB70 or not, you cannot claim that Representative Sandstrom has worked to create a racist bill. He has been very transparent in discussing the issues with voters and has been willing to tweak his bill to address concerns.
I find my own feelings about the immigration bill have changed from strong aversion to ambivalence. I admire the efforts that have gone into the struggle of addressing the problems of immigration. I also admire the efforts that have been marshaled to amend or refine it. Even the opposition, I believe, has been healthy.

I am not surprised that immigration reform is bogged down on the Federal level. If a generally homogeneous populous in Utah cannot come to agreement, how likely is it that the larger population of the country can find consensus?

Anchors Aweigh! for the Partisan-Ship

There should be some places where politics do not interfere. The church is one. School is another. I would like to think that children can be taught to read, write, and think in an apolitical way. We may have just taken a step away from that ideal.

A few years ago, the method for choosing candidates for the State School Board was changed so that a Governor-appointed committee chose the nominees, and the slate was narrowed by the Governor to two candidates, and the voters then elected one of the two. Many people objected to this system and this year Representative Moss drafted a bill to return to direct non-partisan election of State School Board members.

Direct election would allow greater participation as candidates. Keeping it non-partisan would keep control of education out of the hands of political party bosses. There were rumors from the beginning of the session that it would be amended to become partisan elections.

The bill was presented on the House floor yesterday and before any other amendment could be made, Representative Nielsen substituted the bill identical except that elections for State School Board members would be held on odd numbered years, so that they would coincide with the non-partisan municipal elections. Unfortunately, both the bill and the substitute bill were voted down, not because of opposition to direct elections but because the majority of the House of Representatives expressed a desire that the elections be partisan.

I think we can expect to see a bill later in this session that calls for partisan election of State School Board members.