tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8864992991756418300.post3626055273464329236..comments2023-08-29T08:26:49.318-06:00Comments on Utah Education Issues: Rolly was too nice. Senator Buttars showed his ignorance, Stephenson covered for himUtahTeacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10161171487351224481noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8864992991756418300.post-38918653458185572352011-01-30T23:16:53.911-07:002011-01-30T23:16:53.911-07:00Oak,
I agree that the district is big, but implyi...Oak,<br /><br />I agree that the district is big, but implying the board members are too dumb to keep up because of "all their little committees" that by implication must be wastes of time is an unprovable assertion seemingly based on the fact that they don't agree with you about your socialist infiltration claims. Stephenson believes anyone who doesn't believe his ideas are at best misled, but more likely whiny liberal socialists. I definitely have issues at times with decisions of the board or district personnel, but I think they are all sincere, capable residents whom I trust much, much more than almost all state legislators. <br /><br />Once again, I think Stephenson's statement applies much more aptly to new legislators and party officials than to educators. Vote the wrong way and none of your bills will see the light of day. Do your duty on an obscure committee, and you'll get financial help from the party and better assignments once you've been up there 3 or 4 years.<br /><br />I haven't read your link yet, but I will. I also will get to our longer discussion later this week. Sorry.<br /><br />Without reading your reasoning, the only problem I have with smaller school districts in Utah is money. Orem dodged a bullet or they would be Jordan District, only worse off financially and self-imposed. I think many other aspects would be improved in smaller districts, but not enough to kill basic funding--the funding and size of the individual classes matter more.<br /><br />Many small districts also argues for even more local control, which means districts would end up in many different places with curriculum, policy, tradition, etc. What happens when some parents disagree with something at a district, but not a high enough number are upset to change the policy, curriculum, or whatever they dislike? And say they go to the State School Board or legislature and argue that the local district should be reigned in or dictated to? What if your local district used Cleon Skousen textbooks, but other parents who felt strongly they were inappropriate got them banned by the legislature? I don't have my perfect balance of state/local control mapped out, but it seems your current attempts at state regulation fly in the face of advocating for increased local control...UtahTeacherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10161171487351224481noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8864992991756418300.post-48299610342401471512011-01-27T17:39:20.779-07:002011-01-27T17:39:20.779-07:00Just a quick comment about this statement.
"...Just a quick comment about this statement.<br /><br />"Now don't get me wrong, Stephenson's comments, which were repeated twice in the course of the hour, about local school boards being stupid and being led around by the nose by the superintendent, are ideologically idiotic."<br /><br />I agree with Senator Stephenson that our boards are led around by superintendents. In ASD we have board members that cover so many schools (one member has 24 right now and will increase to 26), it's insane to think they can know what's going on. So the superintendent develops a good relationship with them, keeps them busy on all their little committees and members never have a chance to dig into issues. Thus the superintendent runs the district instead of the school board. This is one of the reasons I favor tripling the number of school districts. <br /><br />http://www.utahsrepublic.org/education-reform/better-local-control-triple-the-school-districts/Oaknoreply@blogger.com