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Tuesday, March 04, 2008Education Funding (1st Substitute Senate Bill 2)
Here's the sheet they're discussing right now. Chart progress on our bill browser.
Update: Now we're debating SB 281, Part II of the education funding package. [Update: Here are the talking points.] Education Omnibus Funding Package The Education Omnibus Bill (Substitute Senate Bill 2) passed the Senate today. Here is copy (pending) of Senator Howard Stephenson’s talking points. Highlights: • $60 million ($1700 per qualifying teacher) increase in teachers’ salariesAll in all, the bill appropriated over $3 billion in state funding. Or, written with the zeros, it appropriated over $3,000,000,000. That’s a lot of money.
posted by The Senate Site at 4:24 PM | Link
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5 Comments:
So why is it better to force all of these through in one bill rather than letting each one live or die on its own?
I know that your time is short but I think Utahns would be better served by a legislature that passes bills based on their merits rather than sticking a bunch of pet projects and unpopular legislation together with the vitally important stuff and passing it all at once.
We get enough of that from congress we shouldn't have to accept it from our legislature too.
On the whole I'd rate this session as having been very productive and successful. This seems a really lame way to close things out.
The tactic of "omnibus" legislation is a sham. Once again, legislative ego overrides common sense and good public policy. If the Senate were truly acting in the best interest of those it represents, legislation that had already been voted down by committee or body would not have been included. Please stop micromanaging education and let the District Boards of Education fulfill the role to which they have been elected.
Yeah, but isn't there a principal/agency problem with the District Boards of Education and the legislature? I imagine that is why there is percieved micromanaging - the legislature wants to be sure the money goes where it is intended.
Where the legislature "intends" for money to go is not always in the best interest of educating children. It simply fund pet projects.
Trogdor, the legislature does not practice what it preaches in terms of local management. The recent audit of class size reduction money specifically found that the districts were using the money correctly, but that the money just hadn't kept up with growth.
The point is, the Republican leadership is playing games and pushing a corporate agenda rather than responsibly legislating. Senator Valentine calls the American Board program "tried and proven" in the press conference when their own website explains that it is a pilot program. It's a fly-by-night outfit that sells online courses. What lobbyist even put this organization on the radar? Maybe all the pro-voucher people on the board? It's just weird. That million dollars could go towards WPU which had been appropriately and efficiently used by districts.
Senator Stephenson pushes software as an alternative for class size reduction and family reading--the originally rejected HB 200 bill that gives laptops to preschoolers!--because he uncritically accepts what industry lobbyists tell him. Pushing these bills in a conglomerate is an attempt to avoid public and legislative scrutiny. Claiming that we or they can adequately evaluate all of the pieces of SB 2 in two days is a self-serving lie.
The Senators complain about "media bias" at town meetings and tell themselves that is why the public mistrusts them. Can't they see that it is their determination to push their corporate priorities over sound education funding that alienates us?
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