Reader comments
Education: Public education will face 3 to 4 percent cuts

Dr. Harrington is smart, and I hope the education establishment is listening. After several years of record increases, education is taking a hit like every department during these lean times. They are getting a small hit in comparison, so I hope the slanderers in UEA keep their mouth shut when they are tempted to claim that education is getting the shaft because they have to tighten their belt too. They are not hurt nearly as much as some programs.

Smart Super should remember that education started way behind everything and was at the bottom of the list of priorities for many years. When increase comes, everyone notices. When those increases are taken, no one cares. Teachers are always promised money only to have it cut back or taken away the next year.

Okay, I am so glad that vouchers failed. What would have happened with our budget cuts if it has passed? This is the question to ask the overzealous ultra conservative legislators who want public money to go to private schools all in the name of choice. Your choice is to pick whichever public school you'd like to send, not pick which ever private school and get your neighbors to pay for it. The responsibility is not to ensure those who choose private education have public funds, but to ensure that the public has the opportunity to be educated. Public education is for all and the voucher is for one.

What would have been cut? Vouchers? or Public Ed funding?

I would like to think that teacher salaries are not affected. Getting rid of the State Office of Education altogether would be a better choice. Education is a local issue and the closer the choices are to the local area, the better.

Tell Jordan District and Canyon District that they can have no more money regarding their split. They've wasted enough on acrimonious refusal to compromise.

My next choice would be district level employees. There seem to be more than are needed especially in the big districts.

Classroom teachers should always be the last to get cut. That's where the real bang for your buck comes into play.

An even better idea would be to tell the Canyons District that they have to stay with Jordan District until the economy recovers enough to support another school district. Fire all the employees they have hired and tell the elected school board that they are not needed until the economy recovers.

We need to put a hold on every Charter School that is not built until the economy recovers. We need to put a hold on all building projects in the school districts that are not yet funded. We need to realize that we are going to have to put children into portable classrooms or have over-crowded classes until the economy recovers. As parents we need to make sure that our children are doing their homework and that they are being respectful to their teachers, it will help everyone in the classrooms more then anything else, except if the economy recovered today.

Let education face real cuts! Or, get educated about where the real waste is, to justify your priviledged place with the smallest cuts.

Huntsman is doing what Leavitt did...cut transportation heavily while helping to divert billions of car-user paid taxes into mass transit.

UTA only carries about 1% of all trips according to studies done in 2003 by WFRC engineers. Yet, the Governor and valley Mayors have helped get billions of new tax increases for UTA so they can spend like drunken sailors.

Stop cutting road transportation funds! Instead, stop UTA"s crazy unjustifiable rail projects.

Apparently there are no numerate people in the Huntsman Administration. This type of analysis isn't rocket science. It is just plain old well researched economic analysis with good data to back it up.

While you., the education/political establishments and the media, continue placing infinite trust in UTA, they have been one of the worst transit agencies in the U.S. for deceiving the public with bad / junk data. Read the January 2008 Audit of UTA by legislative auditors.

UTA is Utah's ENRON!

Stop the waste there before cutting UDOT by another cent!