Comments about ‘Gov. Gary Herbert launches education commission’

Who are the members of this group?

Impressive that the Governor would invest this much time and effort on improving education. Not just kicking it off but being part of the mix and discussion.

Haven't we seen this movie before? A couple of times? Sounds like more of the same ol' same ol'.

Educational ideas are like grandmas canned prunes. Wait a few years, throw them out and get some more like the old ones but newer.

As a teacher I don't get to riled, excited, agitated, or enthused about any of the ideas. They come and go, they always have and always will.

The constants in education are the children and the teacher. Helping the individual student achieve more and learn more than they had before they entered my classroom is my ultimate goal.

As long as education keeps comparing test scores from different kids from year to year, there will not be much change in the data. For once it would be nice if we tracked the child. See if they knew more after they had been in a given class then when they went in. Simple, doable and will never happen...it makes to much sense and we wouldn't want any of that when it comes to education.

Instead of forming yet another task force of all your buddies, how about doing something substantive Herbie? Like go back to school yourself and get a degree. That would set the best example of the importance of education.

As chair of his own commission, Governor Herbert can steer it or be brave enough to allow dissenting opinions get a full hearing. This will give us a great chance to see what kind of leader he is. If he gives them full rein, he'll feel like he's herding cats. I just keep my eye focused on one thing: the budget. The Utah legislature has an over ten year history of committing less and less of our total budget toward education, all the while touting reform. If no one can persuade Utahns to invest in their own children when we already spend the least per student in the nation, we're headed for trouble.

Who? Give us their names.

Herbert, you are there to lead, not appoint commissions to avoid making the tough calls.

Stop with all these stupid commissions already. Or.... just be done with it and appoint a "Herbert's Brain Commission," to do all of your thinking for you.

This all sounds like rubbish to me and a commission of nonsense. Every member has special interest and self preservation motives that will have nothing to do with education. That will be the debate in every meeting and a waste to tax dollars. Why are unions and other non eduction specialist who have not been elected usurping the parents rights and inputs to the education system? Where are the parents and tax payers represented in this commission? We have an elected body of representatives that are responsible for these decisions and citizens once again are being slighted and abused.

We can safely predict the commission's results

1. We need more money for class size reduction.
2. We need more money for professional development.
3. We need more money for teacher mentoring.
4. We need more money for teacher salaries
5. We need more money for after school programs.
6. We need parents to be more involved with PTA.
7. We DON"T need choice and competition
8. We DON'T need performance valuations

Wasn't that easy enough?

I'm afraid I agree with "education commission." I helped rewrite the State English Curriculum many years ago and realized that "too many cooks spoil the broth," as they say. It wasn't exactly rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, but it was close. It was useless to me and I suppose to all those but new teachers who needed a crutch.

The best and the brightest have been trying to improve education for 50 years at least, and haven't succeeded. Most innovations come from a single person with a bright idea. Blaine Ray's TPRS movement in foreign language teaching is a good example.

The best and most obvious way would be to raise teacher pay so we could once again attract the best students into education. But they don't want to hear that. I suspect they'll come up with some generalizations like "raise standards and expectations," or the like. I do wish them luck, however, and hope that they will come up with something useful.

I wouldn't be surprised if Howard Stephenson is on this committee. He is EXACTLY the type of person I would expect would represent the views of the Eagle Forum on how to subvert public education.

How come the Govenor has no degree?

We will have to wait and see how the Governor does....given that education has lost hundreds of millions in the last several years.....we want more than just talk....we want action......I won't hold my breath.

He's the Michael Jordan of Utah politics. What a move! No money is to be committed, no money is to be spent. Form a commission, use the word "excellence" and put the right names on it... and sit back and wait and wait and wait...

We've seen this act before. Utahns know what has to happen: you get what you pay for. Pony up and support education across the board and you will discover success. It is not complicated, but it does require taxation and family support.

Next week the Gov. will announce a "Better economy excellence commission" and declare that the recession is over.

This guy is slicker than I thought. I would certainly hate to guard him, he's a shifty one.

Get rid of the beaucracy. Get rid of NCLB and anything else that requires testing, get rid of the accredidation process, get rid of all the extra work that teachers go through because politicians require it, get rid of the unions and tenure, allow teachers to move out of a district without losing their year on the pay scale, give beginning teachers aggressive pay raises the first 5 years and freeze the pay for those over 20 years (except cost of inflation raises), give principals more responsibility inside the classrooms and the power to fire poor teachers.

@5:30, why are you afraid of subverting Public Ed? Id do believe that it is Public Ed that is teaching our kids to subvert the Constitution. Need proof? Just look at the recent battle within the Alpine School District over the words "Enculturating our young into a Social and Political Democracy."

Is this what you want to be continued, or do you want these thoughts and words replaced?

Oh, if you need to know... A Social Democracy is defined in Websters Dictionary as the "peacful movement from a capitalist to a socialist economy."

Maybe we do need shakers such as Howard Stephenson on just type of committee and not the usual Public Ed people we always see.

To all of you that feel like this is just more of the same and that you've seen this beofre, I honestly feel like with Herbert this will be different. He's not just creating this commission for the fun of it. He's actually going to be sitting at the table and listening to all points of view. The difference between Herbert and the past governor's is he is a hands on governor. He's a go getter. I think nothing but good will come of this. Can you really criticize the guy for looking to improve our education system?

"He's not just creating this commission for the fun of it. He's actually going to be sitting at the table and listening to all points of view."

He's going to be sitting at the table with Parents for Choice in Education. An OUTSIDE SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP that has no place on this commission. If he listens to their "point of view" he will be going against the will of the 62% of Utahns who voted against vouchers!

Why isn't a representative of Utahns for Public Schools on this commission? They successfully led the referendum vote against PCE (and their misleading Oreo cookie commercial) and they are all people from UTAH who want to improve education for ALL students--not just the few voucher elite.

Interesting that Sederburg would like to make kids' senior year more worthwhile. With concurrent enrollment, many kids are leaving high school with some college experience and credit under their belt. Sederburg has quite vociferously been no fan of concurrent enrollment. What's his better idea?

Only aspect that seems to be missing is a significant role for Early Childhood Education. There isn't much political WILL to support it . . but all the science that is coming out supports the notion of effective early childhood leading to improved educational outcomes leading to an improved ECONOMIC ENGINE. Let's include early childhood in the mix so it truly is comprehensive.