Summit to map education 'vision'

What should the state's vision for public schools be? Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. says the state is planning a September education summit — he's calling it "the first of its kind" — to find out.

The governor, whose statements came Thursday during the taping of his monthly news conference on KUED Channel 7, said he is inviting Utah's 40 school districts to participate in what he described as "an attempt to define our vision for public education in the state, what we think we can do."

Huntsman just returned from spending several days traveling around the state, a trip that included town meetings in nine counties. He said rural and urban residents "are interested in early childhood literacy, they're interested in teacher pay, they're interested in doing something with respect to the transportation issues," especially in far-flung locales.

Those issues, the governor said, "are absolutely core to education policy going forward." He said the education summit should provide an "understanding what we as a state are pursuing in terms of goals and objectives and what realistically we think we can achieve."

The summit results, he said, "will be driven, in large part, by those who work closest to the issues, along with parents who are involved as well."

Huntsman said he is about halfway toward his goal of visiting each of the state's school districts.

His education deputy, Christine Kearl, talked about the summit idea at a superintendents meeting last week, said Steve Peterson, executive director of the Utah School Superintendents Association.

"We're looking to get more information" on specifics, Peterson said. "I think whatever we can do to get the word out on public education and the good things and the challenges, and come up with solutions, I think it's great to be able to come together and discuss those types of issues."

The governor held an education summit last August in which state, school and community leaders talked about ways to improve public schools. Last year he also assembled groups to discuss issues that included improving student achievement and high school rigor.

A series of community education summits was called during former Gov. Mike Leavitt's tenure to discuss the competency-based education plan, "Performance Plus."

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