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Issue of day: cutting taxes or raising teacher pay

Politicians are a special breed. They announce how they are going to do everything for everyone (Yeah, that's the ticket), and at the end of the session...

ooops, can't do it.

I for one am voting straight ticket this next November, ANTI-INCUMBENT.

That means someone out ther has to leave their house, get out and vote to keep everyone from the Governaire-in-Chief all the way down just to cancel my vote.

A 2, 500 pay raise for teachers last year?? I don't think so. My fiancee, who is a 5th grade school teacher, is receiving only $20.00 more per month on her check statement. That equals $240.00 a year...just a little less than $2,500, I'd say.

There's no reason we can't have both. Every year there is a substantial excess in the state funds and it increased every year by the method of taxation of properties. Reform the taxing methods of county's taxing personal property to help people to afford their homes, especially those on fixed incomes and retired. We need a grandfather taxing system that has been imposed in California that does not penalize individuals with ficticous property valuations on property that is not for sale or being offered for sale. It would probably be in the best interest of our teachers and their pay to remove them from the education funding system. Put teachers and their pay and benefits under the control of the state as any other state employee. The board of education uses teacher pay as an excuse to hide graft, fraud, and corruption in the board of education and its system. The board of education should oversee schools, supplies, and building needs, not state paid employees and their saleries. Put teachers and pay in the hands of the state. Then all colleges and university professors pay not be included in any taxpayer funding, and make it criminal to do otherwise.

Our legislative leaders are hyprocrits and liars. Maybe in future they should wait until the actual money is in the pot before announcing they have the loot False numbers last year, false numbers this year. Pay the teachers and forget your petty lobbyists and filling their pockets. Start making the the corporations pay their share of the taxes because obviously them getting the breaks aren't helping the economy. They make profits and pay low low salaries. Time to ship the illegals back so they don't drain our school budgets also

I am involved in math education reform in Utah. Math education has gone considerably downhill during the past several years. Reading education for a time also suffered as our education community tried whole language instead of phonix. All this is possible and happens because the best and brightest in large part shun the teaching / education profession.

The best and brightest do not choose to teach simply because it pays so little compared to what they could earn going into other fields.

Utah has already had tax cuts. If we are to attract brighter people on average into teaching, we need to pay them more.

Let me repeat, your children are recieving a substandard education because your elected representatives in years past have chosen to be penny wise and pound foolish when it comes to teacher pay.

Math if taught correctly teaches our future scientists and engineers to be able solve very difficult problems. Math has been dumbed down and it no longer does in large part what it is supposed to do. We need to make teaching a better paying profession.

It's time to raise taxes, increase teacher pay, and reduce class size. If the typical Utah family paid another $2,000 per year in taxes we could give teachers the pay increase and the class size reduction they deserve.

I am surprised no one said give us the tax breaks you guys promised. That is highly encouraging.

I too did not see the 'impact' of the raises or last year's bonus. By the time I got my 1K bonus it had been demoted to $50 dollars because I had switched schools. I was lucky to get fifty I was told.

With the $2,500, it is all dependent on which district you work for. In Alpine School District, teachers did actually receive the full 2,500 (but other areas were cut back funding-wise). Other districts absorbed most of the pay increase and did not go through as many funding cuts for teachers, causing teachers to receive much less than the 2,500. It all depends on the district once the monies are dispersed.

Yeah, math is being dumbed down. Thats why our kindergarteners are learning how to do geometry and prove theorems in our school. Thats why our 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders are doing algebra loooooong before I was ever taught in school. To get the same education our students are receiving in school today, I had to wait until Jr. High. But, wait...all this can't be possible because, the kids that are learning these things are in the Evil Alpine School District where they are are being taught the "inept" Math Investigations.

You all complain that education is being dumbed down, yet when teachers turn to research based instruction, such as investigation, you all balk at it because you don't understand it. Come into my classroom and see if your students are really being dumbed down. Find out the truth for yourselves instead of listening to those who have their own personal agendas in mind. I welcome those who have an open mind to visit my class and see the things that I get to witness daily. My students are among the brightest because of Investigations!

Now everybody stick your heads in the sand and chant "Not Listening" over and over.

Increasing teacher pay isn't going to do squat in boosting student performance. Huntsman had his chance, to vocally and politically support vouchers, yet he hid in the closet with his tail between his legs. The only way to improve education is to marketize the industry. NO industry with unions and fixed pay has ever proven itself to be more productive as compared to a market economy. The education industry is steeped in socialism and it simply doesn't work.

Huntsman now wants to dole out more money, our money, to the tribe that defeated school choice, the only mechanism to make education better.

If you look at other places that spend 10K or more, the scores are not going up. The auto industry is dying in America. Why? Well,they had to pay line workers 30.00 per hour. Have you checked the price of a new American made car lately. The only way American cars improved was due to competition from Japan. Remember when American cars had to basically have every part replaced at 50K miles??

Why is education any different than other industries? It is not. The same principles apply.

Teachers receive a good income when you consider the hours worked and the security they have. when has there ever been a layoff. More money to a union will not help education.

better pay = better teachers = better education?
I don't think so.
I graduated with a BS degree and considered teaching. It wasn't the pay that scared me away, it was the extra 60 hours and extra student loans to get my teaching degree and certificate!
Bill Gates couldn't teach in our high schools. Neither could John Huntsman, nor Stephen King.
There are lots of people who might be interested in the career, no matter the pay, but they don't want to go through the crap to get there.

Privatize Education and these problems will be solved! Government run programs are the most inefficient programs in the nation! Goverment employees are typically not the best & brightest either because the pay stinks. Privatizing education creates competition in the marketplace. Competition drives efficiencies as well as increases in salaries. But all y'all teachers voted "no" to the voucher program which would have been the first step in promoting privatization. As long as education is government run, it will be inefficient and problematic.

I still have not seen any article that clarifies the $2,500 pay raise... This amount should read $5,000 as the legislature required last years $2,500 to be placed on Districts Salary Schedules and did not tie this amount to the WPU. That $2,500 was promised to be on-going but it is never mentioned in any news articles. Thus, last years $2,500 needs to be fully funded first.. and then the debate can begin on this years $2,500 or $1,500 whatever that might be.

I believe it is about time to get out of the profession and go to work in a job that is sufficient to support my family and me. That is the trend in Utah; isn't it?

With the new math, students are learning what is called geometry earlier. Here is the rub. The geometry the students learn by the time they graduate high school is a very dumbed down version. Geometry is mostly just the presentation and learning of geometric facts, proofs have been considerably de-emphasized. It is the proofs that teaches students to problem solve and think logically.

If you want to make a point about how math is changing for the good, I would hardly present investigation math as a shining example. In investigations math, very little time is spent on learning to do math by hand. As a result kids hardly know how to solve a problem without resorting to a calculator or collaborating with their fellow students. Doing calculations by hand helps students develop a number sense, which is lacking in todays students. Investigatins math is also very weak in teaching students how to add, subtract multiply and divide fractions.

This is what I am talking about, unless we get smarter people to come into the education field, we will continue to have substandard math education. We need to raise teacher pay and enforce higher standards on our educators.

This I know, there is a huge teacher shortage that will continue to worsen if teacher pay does not increase. Especially when our nation is suffering an increase in the cost of living and inflation.

I don't know what the "right" level of pay is for Utah teachers, but one thing we ought to consider when determining teacher pay is the non-monetary benefits of being a teacher. Most of those benefits have been beaten to death in the past, but one that keeps getting overlooked is that teachers face a significantly lower job risk than almost any other profession. When the economy turns south, as it might do this year, a lot of people lose their jobs and have to find new ones. When was the last time you heard a school district talk about laying off teachers because of the economy. Yes, teachers in Utah don't make much, but it's almost a guaranty that they will have their jobs from year to year (irrespective of their particular teaching quality, I might add). Again, I don't know that the high job security makes up for the low wages, but we ought to at least consider that job security when we talk about what teachers make.

Welchers.

Utah Republican!! You do not represent your party well. You want to raise taxes and help socialism thrive with the statement you placed on this blog. Shame on you. We do not need any more tax increases. What we need is for the money to be spent wisely...