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…
https://youtu.be/JiY5_t-FBTg 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…
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…
What is the Utah State Board of Education’s ACEESS committee and why should you care? In 2016, the USBE made a resolution to form ACEESS (pronounced “ak-cess”), the Advisory Committee on Equity of Educational Services for Students. The committee’s purpose is to advise the USBE on “underrepresented, historically marginalized and underserved students,” and its membership…
The idea of “school choice” has a certain lure to it. Who doesn’t want more choice in where and how our kids become educated? Utah’s public school performance is in a free fall, and the writing is on the wall: public education has been co-opted by third-parties and outside interests and our children have become a…
In September 2021, the Utah State Board of Education staff drafted a document entitled Understanding Gender Identity to Better Support Students, with some lofty goals of offering educators and administrators a “best practices guidance” on how to create an “environment of dignity and respect for all.” It didn’t. In fact, it faced intense criticism from…
There’s a lot of conversation about school choice right now in Utah. Our state is a bit of an outlier in that families have wide latitude in sending their kids to the schools of their choice, whether those options offer public, private, charter, dual-enrollment, or home-based instruction. Even better, non-traditional routes like homeschooling and private schooling have the added advantage of…
Granite School District is telling parents that the ONLY way they’re going to get a respirator or mask exemption for their kids is to come into the schools to fill out a form that asks for much, much more information than is required by Salt Lake County. In fact, you couldn’t be blamed if you…
Recently the Davis School District has come under fire for what is being portrayed as rampant, systemic racism in its schools. No one is defending Davis School District leadership. The district has historically been poorly run, and notoriously unresponsive to parental concerns and rights. But the nature of the DOJ’s investigation and the unclear origin…
