Peter Corroon seeks feedback, crafts education platform

SALT LAKE CITY — Collaboration was the word of the day at an education summit organized by Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon.

Corroon, who is the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, and his running mate, Rep. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful, solicited input from educators, politicians and union leaders last week as a preliminary step to crafting an education platform for their campaign. The primary theme offered by the 60 professionals in attendance was a charge for all stakeholders in the state to work together in creating thoughtful education plans.

Allen has served as a state legislator since 1994 and on the Davis Board of Education from 1978-1990. She said the state needs to make education more of a priority, and all interested parties need to work together.

"What we need is synergy," she said. "Utah needs a long-range plan for education."

Corroon said he and Allen want to reverse the negative impact decreased funding has had on the system.

"Our funding has dropped over the last several years," Corroon said. "And since the 1990s, frankly, I think our education system has slowly been de-funded. ... It's not just because we have a lot of children in the state of Utah, it's also because we're losing funding systematically over the years."

Corroon has a bachelor's degree in civil engineering, a master's degree in real estate development and a law degree.

"My success in life has been dependent on my education," he said. "Education is something you can never take away."

As part of the summit, attendees separated into smaller discussion groups to talk about issues such as state funding and higher education.

Sharon Gallagher-Fishbaugh, president of the Utah Education Association, was emphatic in her assertion that the state needs a comprehensive plan for education, rather than temporarily fixing individual problems one by one.

"There are Band-Aids being put on an arterial bleed," she said. "We need to have a long-term, systemic conversation about what we want."

Several individuals used the state's approach to transportation as a model for how education should be handled.