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1. Utah Policy Daily
2. Campaign fund reform bills grind through the process.
3. Eggs & issues in Utah County.
4. Lee Davidson: Liquor laws a little less odd.
5. Senator Chris Buttars' bill to block the domestic partner registry.
6. Alcohol on election day grinds through the process.
7. Senate Murals get a mention in this article about the House Murals.
8. President Valentine will speak at technology breakfast next week.
9. Senator Mark Madsen's extracurricular activity bill grinds through the process.
10. Death Knell: Great quote on Bruner's blog.
11. Oh yeah? Then where is the cotton candy? JMD calls us a circus. And tells us to vote.
12. Senator Dennis Stowell's incentives for renewable energy (SB 169) grinds through the process.
13. Word from Missouri.
14. Miss Utah visits the Senate.
15. President Monson.
16. The Almighty blocks committee hearing of Senator Hickman's immigration bill.
17. Warchol: Utah / Mars.
18. 2News: No sidecar, stronger drink, less total alcohol consumed, and a little more normal.
19. Liberal Mormon advertises a candelight vigil.
20. Intermountain Pediatric Society endorses CHIP enrollment bill, sponsored by Speaker Curtis and President Valentine.
21. Trib: Please no retribution, retribution is very bad, please no retribution…until, of course, it's OUR turn to dish out retribution!
22. Gehrke: Arguments from unexpected sources against new alcohol law.
23. Pyrah: I-15 in Utah County. And Warburton.
24. Good text messages. Bad text messages.
    
25. Refugee services funding.
26. KCPW highlights the three dissenting votes on the Checks and Balances Bill.
27. Publius and Bekkieann discuss the Checks and Balances Bill.
28. KCPW, we hardly knew ye.

4 Comments:

 Anonymous said...

Regarding #21, it isn't retribution, think of it as competition. In my experience when there are scarce resources, people will work harder to obtain those resources, similar to legislative seats. With increased competition there should be a better product, similarly, with increased competition there should be a better choice of legislators to vote for this November. Incumbents should welcome their challengers because they'll become better candidates.

2/06/2008 7:52 AM  

 Barbara said...

Well said Anonymous. I read the following on the Trib comment forum this morning regarding SB35.

JotaB: 2/4/2008 7:11:00 AM

There are several problems with Senator Stephenson's bill.
1. Only teachers who are teaching higher level math classes will receive the extra pay. If a math teacher is teaching in a junior high, it is unlikiely he or she will receive the full money or any money. If you are a rural teacher you can't fill a full schedule with the classes necessary to receive the pay. Would this plan then lure rural teachers to larger districts?

2. Once awarded the bonus pay, a teacher keeps it for the rest of his or her career regardless of what they teach.

3. What about elementary teachers who build the foundation for math? Many of them have gone back to college to get special math training and endorsements.

4. Usually the students in a high school that need the most help are the ones in the lower math students but now you would be incentivizing the teachers away from those classes.

This is a divisive bill that will not help. It is not following market forces that it purports to honor. There are larger shortages in the Special Ed teaching ranks. Again Senator Stephenson has introduced a bill that will sound good to the public but is rife with problems and would end up causing more harm than good in public ed. Hmmmm.

Could you please respond to the issues raised here?

2/06/2008 8:23 AM  

 The Senate Site said...

Anon, 7:52 actually makes some sense, lol!

"Barbara" asked a few questions re: S.B. 35. Here are some answers:

1. S.B. 35 provides a potential $5,000 pay increase for math and science teachers who “fill positions for which there is a critical shortage of qualified personnel.” (Page 2, lines 38b-41; Page2a, lines 56-58). The determination of which math and science positions are suffering from a “critical shortage of qualified personnel” is made on an annual basis by the State Board of Education. (Page 2, lines 45-49). Consequently, a junior high math teacher or a rural math teacher, may be eligible for a pay increase if the State Board of Education determines that those positions are critically short of qualified personnel.

It’s true that the pay increase is dependent upon the “number of hours of qualifying courses taught,” and therefore, teachers who are unable to teach math or science courses full-time will receive a smaller pay increase. (Page 3, lines 62-62b). With that said, the bill should not incentivize rural teachers to move to urban areas. In fact, in researching this possibility, we found out that Utah’s rural teachers are actually more likely to teach a full complement of math or science courses compared to their urban counterparts.

2. Teachers are not given the pay increase for the remainder of their career, regardless of what they teach. The determination of which positions are in short supply takes place on an annual basis. (Page 2, lines 45-49). The pay increase is entirely dependent upon which positions are in short supply each year.

3. Elementary teachers, which are not in short supply, are not likely to be affected by this bill. With that said, elementary teachers are not explicitly excluded from receiving the pay increase. These teachers will be awarded the pay increase to the extent they fill a position in short supply.

4. High school teachers of less advanced math and science courses will be eligible for the pay increase if those positions are critically short of qualified personnel. Again, the key determination of which positions suffer from a “critical shortage of qualified personnel” is made by the State Board of Education.

Hope that helps. Please feel free to post additional questions.

Thanks for your interest.

2/09/2008 10:45 PM  

 Anonymous said...

What about Information Technology teachers such as Computer Science teachers who teach programming classes or those in Information Technology who teach computer engineering (repair,networking) Those are not "Science" endorsements but definitely in high demand. I have seen conflicting news reports that Technology teachers were included and other sites which don't mention them.

3/11/2008 11:49 AM  

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