Deseret News | UEA leaders seek more spending per pupil as investment in future

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UEA leaders seek more spending per pupil as investment in future

Lets ignore the UEA | 7:16 p.m. Oct. 1, 2009

Lets ignore the UEA for two years. Perhaps they will go away. Utah schools in my opinion would be better if they did disappear.

Hmmm | 8:21 p.m. Oct. 1, 2009

Maybe if the UEA started to try to do more with less without complaining then maybe we would take them seriously.

UEA reduces innovative education | 8:37 p.m. Oct. 1, 2009

Give us a choice in education and we'll increase the funding. The UEA (with heavy support from the national organization) fought tooth and nail to limit our educational choices by denying vouchers.

The UEA is impeding the progress of education in Utah.

Comments continue below

Woody | 8:39 p.m. Oct. 1, 2009

We need to get rid of the NEA!!

Not about UEA | 9:35 p.m. Oct. 1, 2009

The funding issue is not about UEA, about the priority the Utah legislature places on public education. They are too busy funded two separate systems (charters and public schools). I wish they would fund ONE system adequately. Who better than teachers to know first hand that students cannot learn as well in a crowded classroom. As a parent, I totally support lower class sizes. That was one of the promises made to us in the formation of the new Canyons School District. So far, nothing has happened -- we'll see.

Can save millions. | 4:43 a.m. Oct. 2, 2009

What would do the best for education in Utah is if the UEA would take it upon themselves to force the 22% of student illegal aliens from our schools. That means 22 out of every 100 students in our schools are illegal aliens. Crunch the numbers and face the facts that this is having a very drastic affect on the per pupil spending in our schools. This 22% is the states own publicized figures and not dreamed up.

Also the UEA and education in Utah must face the fact that taxes for our education system are going to investments and stock market and developers. Utah tax paying citizens are among the highest taxed per pupil yet the money is being deferred and spent before it can get used in education.

The UEA is once again crying Wolf to raise taxes for education. The UEA should stick to being a union and not a political lobbyist group interfering with the financial problems in education. They are doing an injustice to their union members by acting as lobbyist and a political group outside of union duties.

Educational Fix | 8:56 a.m. Oct. 2, 2009

@Not about UEA | 9:35 p.m. Oct. 1, 2009

You are right about needing to stop feeding the pig. We should stop funding District administrations and return the schools to the grassroots. Make them ALL Charter schools and fund them the same.

With how well Charters have done, changing all these District schools into Charter schools and getting rid of the expensive overhead would save the State millions of wasted dollars. Charters have cost the taxpayer less than District schools and have at minimum provided the same level of achievement with smaller class sizes that the neighboring District schools provide.

We should not fund these two systems. Charters work and do it cheaper and better. We should fund them not the District tax hogs.

@can save millions | 9:04 a.m. Oct. 2, 2009

Illegal aliens are not the problem with the system. It is also illegal for schools to discrimintate based on immigration status because of international laws as well as US Supreme Court rulings. What you are advocating is both racist and illegal, yet it is what many backward red-neck thinkers are doing when they feel threatened by better workers coming in from Mexico to take their jobs.

Republicans have protected illegal immigration because it is good for business. People who want to reform immigration laws should start thinking instead of punching REPUBLICAN at each election cycle (if they actually go and vote, which is a problem in Utah).

The biggest problem in Utah's education is APATHY. Re-read the article. Apathetic teachers are in the classrooms which leads to apathetic indoctrination of our students. If these people really cared about our kids, they would be fighting teacher raises each time they are given them opting instead for that money to go to reducing class size or buying materials. They just want more money for themselves.

Clare | 9:57 a.m. Oct. 2, 2009

I have 28 students in my fourth grade class. I feel so overwhelmed by trying to meet all of their needs. I'm doing my best and putting in extra hours, but what these students need are smaller group instruction. I'd love to do it, but how can I ignore the rest of the class? It's a shame. How can you say I'm apathetic @can save millions. Shame on YOU!

Stop picking on the association. Just because you don't like what they're saying, which by the way is true, I have seen no constructive suggestions here to improve the problem. We just need to pay a little bit more each in taxes. I'll be retiring in a few years, but I still won't complain about it. Our children are worth it, and by the way, we have no children of my own, so we pay more then the average family.

6th grade education | 12:53 p.m. Oct. 2, 2009

Please remember that these people making disparaging remarks about the UEA are usually uneducated rednecks.

They are jealous because they don't have the education that teachers have and think they could be teachers with their 6th grade education.

Look at the numbers, Utah is starting to drop in educational measurements. And if the real numbers were used, you would see the true picture of our "educated population".

Fred | 1:27 p.m. Oct. 2, 2009

Awe, UEA the great satan of our time and our state. I kind of wish UEA would go away to just to see who would take the blame for a failed system then. Whether it be the legislator, or the head of a household, we invest our money in what we value. Sure the large number of non tax paying citizens (school age children) makes it more difficult, but that is nothing more than an excuse. Look at the financial effort to educate our children, dead last in the country, look at the financial effort invested in UDOT for our roads, top ten in the country. Don't blame UEA for Utah legislators screwed up priorities, bput the blame where it belongs, the people that keep electing these folks. I would suggest that the person who suggested teachers turn down their infrequent and small raises lead by example, and donate his/her raise to his/her local school district each year, to show his/her commitment to education. Funny thing most of you would not look for the cheapest surgeon if you needed heart surgery, but you value your children's education so little you do it on the cheap

@Clare | 2:54 p.m. Oct. 2, 2009

A constructive solution is mobilizing parents to keep students on task with some sort of hands on activity while you take small groups for more individualized instruction. My father is part of a group of Senior citizens that volunteer their time in a first grade classroom with those needing this. Reach out to someone and quit being so melodramatic in all your woe is me complaining. Find the solution and complete it. YOU as the teacher are supposed to do that.

Another solution is team with your fellow teachers and get your administrator to put more resources to the problem of individualized needs. If kids NEED individual time MAKE IT HAPPEN. Somehow Charter schools can do this when they have less funding when they hire paraprofessionals. You are probably at a school where you can still find SOME help from the community in achieving this, but you may have a tough sell with your administration getting additional support. That is where the apathy comes from. It is also why I always buy my OWN materials for the classroom. That way I can't play the blame game that we hear constantly from the Unionized teachers.

Need men in Ed | 3:04 p.m. Oct. 2, 2009

Public Education is socialized daycare.

We could really use highly educated professionals as teachers, but that is asking too much of people who put in the strenuous work of obtaining a college or university degree considering the salary is so poor compared to what other industries could offer. So we get teachers who hopefully can manage a horde of ravenous students that often do not want to be there but are required to. If we valued education, it would not have such a bad stigma to it. We would also have more men in the industry too.

Kids still graduate and some of them actually achieve if they are able to rise above the morass of mediocrity that encompasses our public schools. That largely has to do with the home of where the kids are from. The teachers cover material in the class, but the actual teaching still is the parents ultimate responsibility.

Stuart G. Crump | 3:37 p.m. Oct. 2, 2009

Money can't solve every problem. Certainly, money can build more building and hire more teachers, but if those teachers don't know how to teach well, and if they all get paid the same amount regardless of their performance, and we don't give parents more options of schools to choose from, and we keep accepting federal money and federal regulations, and and parents don't teach their children how to read, write, and do arithmetic before they get to kindergarten, and we don't extinguish the UEA, then money is not going to do much to help.

Saying that money will solve all our problems is like saying that feeding Dick Cheney fuzzy peaches will grow hair on his head.

whoever | 6:21 p.m. Oct. 2, 2009

Whoever wrote the @Clare comment at 2:54, can I have some of the magic dust you have? Charter schools are not as perfect as you paint them. The problem with education is not teachers. Are there bad teachers, yes. But, the problems at every level above teachers cause more damage than even the worst teacher. Legislators, parents, administrators all need to get it together and quit dumping their failures at the feet of teachers.

UEA ruins education | 6:38 p.m. Oct. 2, 2009

Too bad their motives aren't genuine, but rather self serving. As a parent and taxpayer, I'm not concerned about the funding. I sit on a Charter Board. We're able to do just fine with the funding we have. I want accountability and measureable results. What is the unions position on that? That's a rhetorical question. We already know they don't want that.

charter schools ruin education | 10:11 p.m. Oct. 2, 2009

Too many people involved in charter schools have no idea what they are doing. They pay less and there is less security, so if you were a good teacher where would you prefer to teach. As far as accountability and measureable results you can go to plenty of websites to see any number of test scores.

Anonymous | 3:06 p.m. Oct. 3, 2009

To:charter schools ruin education...

Apparently the 30,000 students that attend charter schools and their taxpaying parents disagree with you.

"Too many people involved in charter schools have no idea what they are doing."
Blanket statements make you look small.

"They pay less and there is less security, so if you were a good teacher where would you prefer to teach."
Most charter schools pay exactly the same as districts. Teaching at a charter is a choice that apparently plenty of teachers make.

Test scores NEVER tell the whole story about any student.

charter schools ruin education | 3:45 p.m. Oct. 3, 2009

I never said test scores tell the whole story. That was referring to a previous post. Check the pay scales. There are a lot of good people that are involved in charter schools, why don't they put their energy in public schools. I am not saying public schools don't need improvement, they absolutely do. Look at the ridiculous pay of some of the district adminstration, see how hard it is to get rid of a substandard administrator, public education needs work. But, it still does a great job.

Educational Malnutrition | 10:26 p.m. Oct. 3, 2009

If the only food our children could eat came from taxes would we be satisfied with giving them only enough to stay alive, or would we be willing to pay more in taxes to improve their diets enough to help them thrive?

Do we really not have enough money to keep us from the bottom of the education pile? Utah is not the bottom state in per capita income. A quick look through your house and garage will reveal more stuff than you need or use?

The truth is we might have to buy fewer clothes, eat out less or use the snowmobile, car, or boat a little longer before getting a new one.

The Legislature and members of the taxpayers association should take their children with them to out of state schools and ask them what classroom experiences they would like to have if only mommy and daddy were to value education as much as they do all that stuff in their basement and garage.

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Stuart Johnson, Deseret News

Pamela Perlich, research economist at the University of Utah, talks about education and demographics as the keynote speaker at the UEA convention in Sandy Thursday.