Unofficial Voice of the Utah Senate Majority
Welcome to The Senate Site
Thursday, June 21, 2007Losing ground
By Margaret Dayton
Utah State Senator, District 15 Utah's resistance to No Child Left Behind created ripples across the nation - and created some angst and frustration with the U.S. Dept. of Education. We continue to fight for flexibility and state control of education, with local legislation and repeated requests for waivers in Washington. Fortunately for Utah, one of the members of our Congressional delegation was a school teacher for nearly 30 years, and he has always been an ally in our fight for flexibility. But lately Congressman Bishop's efforts in Washington have been partially undermined - undermined by fellow Utahns who are fighting choice and flexibility here at the local level. Congressman Bishop has apparently been given repeated indications by folks in the federal education establishment in DC that the actions of the Utah State Board of Education and others to fight against Utah's voucher legislation are undermining his work. Not allowing choice and flexibility for parents in Utah while begging for flexibility at the federal level seems somewhat hypocritical, and it is backfiring. Also, Rob's claims that the Utah Legislature and the State Office are united in their education efforts are sounding a little hollow lately. Utah may well be losing ground in our national NCLB flexibility battle because of the mixed message. We insist on choice and flexibility when negotiating with our colleagues in D.C., but work tirelessly to sabotage it here at home.
posted by The Senate Site at 3:57 PM | Link
|
Government 2.0 AccessoriesRadio Free SenatePast Five Twitter UpdatesKeep in TouchYour Government 2.0 Lab
Current Discussions
Senate Site Feed
|
© 2008. All rights reserved. Designed by Jeremy Wright & His Brother-In-Law
18 Comments:
Not to worry, Utah will more than make up any lost ground with the next federal administration which won't be so wedded to this ideological struggle from the political Right.
And why not allow the State Board of Education the flexibility to do its job as it sees fit. Attempts to fire its attorneys, make it a partisan board and scrap its ability to hire its superintendent aren't controlling? Who's trying to control whom?
I don't think I've ever seen a "Kill All Democrats" and "Destroy Those Who Oppose Me!" missive be that polite before."
Or, maybe it was just a "What would the neighbors think?" kind of thing.
Kudos, Senator Dayton, for casting scurrilous blame on those who disagree with you in such a dignified and prosaic way.
I really like the way you lauded Bishop, ignored Matheson and seem amnesic to Cannon's loving support of the NCLB before it screwed up his polling.
Did I miss an article in which Bishop talked about this? If so, can someone help me with a link? I am especially interested in the identities of those in the federal government who shared such concerns with Bishop. Otherwise, some might suspect this to be a bit of malarkey.
P.S. To JM Bell: It's unreasonable to expect Sen. Dayton to acknowledge the existence of our Democratic Congressman. One can't do that and win the "100% Predictable" Award.
This post has been removed by the author.
C'mon everybody, let's punish them! ...All these undermining backfirers, let's make them partisan!
Let's appoint them! Then when they've had enough, let's make them submit to the AG!
I appreciate Senator Dayton and her opposition to No Child Left Behind. I struggle with her premise that our voucher fight has anything to do with NCLB, and if it does, shouldn't most of the blame lie with the legislators that listened to special interest and passed this ill conceived and unpopular law? I also am shocked that so many of our legislators that abhor NCLB are so quick to advocate for further executive control and politicalization of our state system of education. NCLB is the best reason to not allow the governor to hire (and fire at will) the state superintendent of public instruction, or to have our school board members elected in partisan elections. If successful, this proposed power grab will come back to hurt our schools and our children far more than the voucher disagreement ever will.
When has this ever been about parent choice? It is and has always been about greed.
Over the last six months we have watched a republican party that will stop at nothing to force vouchers on the people. This argument is nothing more than another attempt to confuse the citizens of Utah.
Is the money from PCE worth it? I guess it is.
Shame on you Senator.
PS, maybe the time has come to make legislative races non-partisan, and to have the governor choose legislative leadership.
Thank you Senator Dayton!! The State School Board needs to recognize they are a part of the government (they are NOT a 4th branch). Board members should be part of a partisan election...because then delegates can assure that candidates will be representing the whole community and not a special interest group - especially one as large as public education has become.
Personally I support public education...my children are all in public ed. Although I won't be using a voucher - I adamently support giving people that option.
Good point anonymous, if the legislature does try to turn the board partisan then maybe the board should pick legislative leadership.
After all, they receive more votes than any legislator does.
They receive more votes because they have bigger districts--what a concept.
BTW Rob, the AG receives more votes than the board.
Touche!!
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_6211061
"A spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Education said the federal education guidelines have nothing to do with school vouchers or a public challenge to them.
''We're uncertain as to what Congressman Bishop is referring. There is no connection between state flexibility under No Child Left Behind and the voucher program,'' said Jo Ann Webb. "
Yeah, I read today's Tribune article thinking there might be some backup to Bishop/Dayton's claim, e.g., names of any person who supposedly said something, who that person is, what they supposedly said. Such information was conspicuous in its absence. Hmm...
Voice of U, 6/21: I was not aware of any article on the subject until today - I was referencing a telephone conversation Congressman Bishop and I had a few days ago. He and I have worked together on education issues for a few years now, and I appreciate the work he is doing on our behalf in D.C.
Also (one would think this is obvious but apparently I need to clarify...) I had this telephone conversation with one congressman, not three. This is not the definitive work on the actions of our congressional delegation. It's a single blog post on a conversation I found to be interesting.
Telephone conversation: 1
Congressman: 1
Blog Post: 1
Bottom line: Much ado about nothing
Encouraging lawlessness
Article Last Updated: 06/25/2007 12:04:07 AM MDT
It is perhaps not well enough known by the general public that when the Legislature passes a law, the bureaucracy has some autonomy in deciding how it will implement it.
That does not mean that agencies have the right to veto legislation. Unbelievably, The Tribune's editorial board was apparently condoning exactly that in its June 20 editorial. The editorial accuses members of the Legislature of being “control freaks” with “bruised egos” because they may want to punish the State Board of Education for refusing to implement the school voucher program.
In fact, the Legislature makes laws, and the bureaucracy implements them. The Utah Supreme Court should have stood by the Legislature instead of encouraging lawlessness. Just because the Board of Education is nonpolitical does not mean it operates under a different set of rules. It is not its own Legislature. The Utah Legislature would be correct to punish the board in order to ensure order in government.
The general public needs to realize that the more discretionary power bureaucracies have, the less power the public has to change anything. We elect legislatures, not bureaucracies.
Bethany Conner
Provo
The State Board of Education is elected by citizens like Bethany and myself. The legislature has oversight over the State Board's rulemaking through the Administrative Rules Review Committee. They can also clarify and codify any desired change to rules through statute.
Clearly questions have been raised regarding the Attorney General's role in providing advice to the state board of education. Fine. Let's have that discussion. However, the timing and rhetoric emanating from Education Committee Chairs is grandstanding - nothing more, nothing less.
Bethany, your comments about lawlessness and punishing an elected school board to "ensure order" has ominous overtones. The voucher situation, which involved implementing a stayed law with amendments, was without precedent in our state. It was a very sticky situation that needed resolution.
The Supreme Court listened to the arguments and made its ruling. By issuing its ruling the Supreme Court did NOT encourage "lawlessness." Rather, through its actions it reinforced the constitutional right of the people to participate as equals in the lawmaking process through its right to call for a referendum.
Post a Comment
<< Home