Sen. Bramble's SB 199 was not well-intended. It was political payback targeting the PTA from the start.

And please don't assume all math "geeks" are excited about Singapore math. There has been disagreement about the merits of this program within the math world from the start.

Nothing Sen. Stephenson does excites me.

The best thing that could happen to education is to get Stephenson removed from any committee that deals with education.

Also remove any legislator that has ties to charter school construction.

Taking money from the REAL schools does nothing to improve education in our state.

Just look at the rash of charter failures and scandals.

It is a joke/experiment that has gone on too long....

Don't you just love how anyone who disagrees with you politically is motivated by "payback," but those who agree with you politically are motivated by the highest ideals?

Thanks, "Missed the boat," I'll be chuckling over that all day.

So, which schools are the REAL schools?

Scandals?

Do you mean the one where the two teachers had a tryst with the same student reported last week?

The sub with the underaged girl?

Perhaps it was the other tryst at that HS involving the same girl from last year?

Or maybe it was one of the two embezzlement cases that we read about?

Frankie Hall?

Splits?

Frankly, there is a reason Charters thrive in Utah. That reason is simply, an escape from what is being offered. On the whole I like our District schools. I would never send my own kids to them if I could avoid it though, because it is all TOO REAL.

I went to Bingham High. I loved my experience. I kept out of trouble but saw it everywhere. We had the one hall where the ceiling was loaded with tobacco. Drugs and booze made appearances (I know that bag of green stuff wasn't shredded coconut). We had more than thirty girls my Jr. year learn sex-ed from an early motherhood.

I don't want that for my children. I want something better. Most Charter parents do. Until Districts get fixed, we need the alternatives to keep our kids safe.

Scandals?

Do you mean the one at Mountainville Academy where the 6th grade teachers were fired one week before school was out in December?

The Mountainville Academy director who was fired at the end of school last year?

The Mountainville Academy director who resigned one week ago?

The Monticello Academy director who was REMOVED by the State Charter School Board last month?

The Moab Charter School that was taken over by the State 4 years ago?

The Monticello Academy questionable antics of the Board of Trustees since November that resulted in the resignation of all of the Parent Council members?

What about Liberty Academy not having enough enrollment and being rolled into ALA?

Splits? Every Charter School is a "split" of sorts. It is when the helicopter parents decide that they can do it better then anyone else and make there own school. Unfortunately, many of these helicopter parents end up bringing their children back to the district schools because the charter did not meet their expectations.

Wait, so someone brings up sex and embezzlement scandals in the "REAL" schools (I'm assuming they mean the ones run by the government) and someone counters with firings and resignings at charter schools? Are you really saying they're equivalent? Please tell me you had another point in mind there, because that's scary.

Also, I'm not sure why the derrogatory term "helicopter parents." They take their child out, try something else, then come back, and that makes them bad? Is the daring to think that something else might work for their children that makes them bad, or is it the fact that they showed their disloyalty to the government run schools, and then had the audacity to return?

Turn off your radio and quit listening to Hannity. The term "government" schools is laughable. First off, you try to align them to Nazism. Second, you give the "government" too much credit.

Every year is a rollercoaster ride in public education with the Utah State Legislature. There are too many individuals there who think they know how to micro manage education and end up making things worse....I am appreciative that public education was not cut as much as it could have been but all this charter school stuff is a joke. Quit funding public education two different ways...

Keep obfuscating, it might just work. First, you assume that anyone who disagrees with you listens to Shawn (sp?) Hannity, apparently in an attempt to minimize their contribution to a debate. For anyone who missed debating in High School, that's the first sign that you have no argument.

Second, the use of the term "government" in relationship to schools was merely an attempt to figure out exactly which schools were being discussed, since there are "traditional" schools, charter schools, and private schools. The government runs traditional schools, boards run charter schools, and private interests run private schools. BTW, your injection of naziism reveals just how much you don't want to really discuss anything - invocation of Nazis is the second sign that you have no real argument.

I don't know what you listen to, or watch, but until people are willing to reject your type of outlandish nonsense, the debate will go nowhere.