2023 Legislature Education Related Brief Summary By Fred Ash. URSEA Legislative Chair
I was able to determine that there were over 2200 bills and resolutions considered before they were numbered. Of that number 933 were numbered: House 567 bills and 42 resolutions; and Senate 300 bills and 24 Resolutions, a total of 867 bills and 66 resolutions, 575 of which passed both houses. The governor vetoed one House bill and one Senate bill, so 573 bills became law. This compares to last year’s total of 752 bills and 56 resolutions, 512 of which passed.
Our legislature is composed of a total of 104 legislators. So that would be an average of about 21 bills/resolutions requested per legislator. One can only imagine how much better bills would be debated, how much less revision would have to be done in future legislative sessions, if our legislature would simply establish a limit of about 5 or 6 bills a legislator could submit in a session.
Of the 19 bills I commented on, the legislature agreed with me on 15 of them. The Deseret News reported that “Utah lawmakers appropriated record funding to Utah’s public schools, increasing the education budget by $383 million in ongoing revenue, up 9% over the previous year, the lion’s share of the increase was a 6% bump to the value of the weighted pupil unit, $10 million for teacher bonuses. . . a one-time $64 million increase for paid professional hours for teachers. . . .”
And the “Hope Scholarship” bill, a re-run from last year which was clearly a voucher bill which allotted millions of dollars to private school students with no accountability as to how the money would be spent or how those who received the scholarships performed academically, this year cleverly included a teacher pay bonus. And while none of the professional associations that support teachers supported the bill, the legislature passed it in such a way that it couldn’t even be vetoed by the Governor.
There were several bills that if passed would have greatly restricted/mandated how a teacher planned and presented curriculum, which thankfully were not approved. My comments to the legislators on those bills were quite wordy, but I will here include some of my response to SB114, Public School Curriculum Requirements , which addressed requirements related to the approval of materials for classroom use and certain policies. This bill, along with HB 234, was clearly designed to deal with the challenges presented to several school districts by parents about textbooks being used that supposedly contained material that some parents didn’t want their children to be exposed to.
The bill was very well written to make sure that there could be no major challenges of instructional materials and supplemental materials if the school followed the instructions to the letter. Here is part of my comment: “. . . . it seems to me that to do what this bill asks of a district would almost require that a district establish a special department to conduct the evaluation of materials, as materials are updated and changed constantly, and not all teachers use the same materials.
“What the writers of this bill apparently don’t understand is that a main reason in-person teaching is more effective than on-line instruction is that the in-person teacher is an individual who is teaching how and what he/she feels the best way to teach, and who recognizes that every student is different, so tries to present ideas and concepts the best he/she can do to meet every student’s needs, which means that different teachers will often use different teaching materials, which means that more materials will have to be approved in this lengthy process constantly.
“Teachers are not robots. Students are not robots. Our system of public education is one of the best in the world in many ways. Every teacher, every teaching material is not perfect. . . . If a parent is concerned about a teacher’s methods, unless that teacher is doing something totally illegal, it is best for the student if the parent helps the student learn how to work with that teacher, which will help that student in the long run in getting along with employers and fellow employees. Almost all textbooks have been approved by the State School Board. If a parent has a problem with a teaching material that parent should present his/her concerns to the teacher, and the local school board if necessary.
“ Please do not place an additional burden on our local school boards by passing SB114.”
I don’t know if what I said or how I said it helped, but the bill did not pass.
I have noted in previous articles that my head is having a harder time studying bills and writing clear responses, so if there is a person not in cognitive decline who would enjoy doing this, please let the URSEA Board know.