They can't discriminate on that basis," she says. "So I'm just going on my own assumptions that it's because I cost too much. They could pay for two brand new first-year teachers or they could pay for me."

Ironically, the only job offer Ms. Shelley has been able to secure is one in Idaho, with a salary higher than she's been making in Utah.

But moving to Idaho would require her husband to leave his job in Utah County, would uproot their four young children and would move Gina away from the University of Utah, where she's finishing her Ph.D..

When she has that Ph.D., however, she's not ruling out the possibility of leaving Utah.

She'll let somebody import her just like the Utah officials are importing teachers from Mexico.

"It makes me mad to see them bringing people in from outside to do a job I could do myself," she says. "I've taught a bilingual classroom. I've done it. Let me do it. My guess is the teachers they're bringing in from Mexico have been at it a while, but I'm also guessing they're paying them first-year teacher salaries. That's not fair to them, either.

"The bottom line is it comes down to the money. That's what this is all about. The money."

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Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.