Tomorrow, June 30, the Utah State Board of Education will debate this issue: What is the best way to prevent pornographic materials in the school? Two model policies have been proposed with two different visions on how to achieve this goal. The first version is called the Master Merged Draft, and it allows Utah’s 42-plus …
Continue reading “50 Shades of Pretending to Protect Kids from Porn”
When people use the word “equity” it’s because they want whatever they’re associating it with to sound “fair.” But when it comes to racial matters, equity is the opposite of fairness. Equity in practice means discriminating in the name of ending discrimination. It’s hardly fair, but that doesn’t stop those who believe in inflicting social …
Continue reading “Equity: One of CRT’s many disguises in our schools”
The nationwide spotlight on illicit and explicit materials in our kids’ schools has been shining on Utah particularly lately, culminating in Representative Ken Ivory’s Sensitive Materials in Schools bill, HB374 That bill passed in March 2022, and now the ball is in the state Board’s court. Explicit Materials in SchoolsThe Battle at the Utah State Board …
Continue reading “Explicit Materials in Schools – the Fight at the Utah State Board of Education”
How many policies, instructors, programs, assessments, assignments, data-driven reports, curricular plans, learning strategies, professional development trainings, standards, dollars, modules, organizations, procedures, surveys, etc. (you get the picture) does it take to teach a child to read the word “CAT?” The Simple Art of learning, original presentation, March 10, 2022, given to Utah state Board of …
Critical Race Theory is the Schrodinger’s cat of public education–it’s both taught and yet somehow not taught in our Utah schools. That’s the conundrum, isn’t it? How can so many people think a thing exists and yet doesn’t at the same time? Schrodinger’s cat is simultaneously alive and dead. Rather like CRT in our kids’ …
Continue reading “PART I “WHITE” People: CRT Alive and Unwell in Our Schools”
The SJR 6 Joint Resolution Promoting the 3rs Framework of Rights, Responsibility, and Respect in Classrooms, if you go by the sound of it, seems like a bill that could inspire folks from both sides of the aisle to shake hands over. But if you click through the Utah 3Rs Project website, you’ll see a pattern emerge that isn’t …
Continue reading “Say No to SJR 6: 3Rs in the Classroom UPDATED 2-25”
HB 337 supposedly tries to create a way for parents to be heard through an Education Ombudsman — but that won’t happen because the ombudsman would be under the Governor. Governor Cox has been very clear about wanting to “define” parents’ role as being just one of many “stakeholders” in education. See the email below from Governor …
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Some Utahns continue to claim that HB331, the Hope Scholarship Program bill, has sufficient protections against government overreach and regulation, because the intent behind the bill is good. And maybe it is, but the problem with good intentions is that they’re no guarantee of good outcomes. So let’s take one (HOPEfully) last look at how …
Continue reading “The Slippery Slope of HOPE: Where the HOPE Scholarship goes wrong”
Sometimes parents get so frustrated with public schools that they become desperate for solutions. This is completely understandable. Public, or government-run schools, are declining on multiple fronts, and our kids are not thriving like they deserve to. Redirecting money from government schools into private and home schools may seem like a logical fix for this …
The Hope Scholarship Program Bill will be going through the House Taxation and Revenue committee TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, @ 8:00 am. CALL TO ACTION: CLICK HERE to EMAIL THE HOUSE TAXATION AND REVEUE COMMITTEE TO ASK THEM TO VOTE NO ON PASSING HB331 OUT OF COMMITTEE csnider@le.utah.gov ; adamrobertson@le.utah.gov ; nabbott@le.utah.gov ; sbarlow@le.utah.gov ; jbriscoe@le.utah.gov ; seliason@le.utah.gov ; sharrison@le.utah.gov …
Continue reading “Take Action Today: Reasons to Say NO to HB331 Hope Scholarship Bill”
