There always seem to be a lot of bills regarding education that come up during the legislative session. About a month ago, I called Governor Herbert's office to ask him to veto one bill. Here are my reasons behind my opinion.
SB 257 seemed great at first- a 15 member panel made up of parents that would help with evaluating SAGE questions as well as dealing with parent complaints on curriculum. But I asked Governor Herbert to veto it. What? You thought I supported parental involvement, so why would I ask him to veto the bill? There were a couple of potential problems I saw. I think that a parent panel is essential. But I am concerned that these individuals are appointed by politicians. I have no idea of the qualifications of these parents and it makes me nervous that a politician might stack the parent panel only with individuals who will vote the ways the politician wants. I also was concerned that every parent complaint about curriculum went to this State level parent panel, when I see resolving curriculum issues at a local level. And 11 of the 15 parents on the current panel actually asked for this bill to be vetoed.
I will below a letter that a parent on the panel sent to Governor Herbert. You can see news articles about the veto of SB 257 below.
Alean Popa Hunt I am a member of the Sage parent review panel, I served with 14 other parents. One who was very vocal against the common core and she too has requested a veto of this bill. I am going to include a copy of my letter to the governor. This bill does not say anything about the "core", it does not provide specifics for when, where how many questions would be reviewed? Utah has 42 districts and 100 charter schools they all can use their own currriculum, yet we are supposed to be reviewing complaints on all of it? Who does the research? No fiscal note attached? GRAMA laws and lawsuits without legal protection for us, the "volunteers". Also, this bill didn't go through an education committee. Senator Stephenson sent it through taxation committee which he sits on to avoid debate. If you watched the e cig bill also when this bill was passed the e cig nill jumped from 5th to 1st on the reading calendar. There was a deal made. 11:40 at night last night of the session as is his standard, just like last year with school grading. By the way PTA looks out for the children.
March 17, 2014
To: Governor Gary Herbert
cc: Tami Pyfer
Re: SB257
Governor Herbert,
I am a mother of 6, a public education advocate and continue to be a daily volunteer for hours each day and have been in the schools for the last 13 years. It was my pleasure to serve on the Sage Assessment parent review panel, and I would happily serve on any committee I was asked but there needs to be a common sense approach.
I have spoken to my representative, Ed Redd and am including his response to my disappointment in his vote.
Dear Mrs. Hunt:
I am so sorry. I honestly did the best that I could based on the information that I had after a limited debate at 11:40 PM which obviously was not enough. I thought by voting on this bill that I was giving parents additional input on curriculum review which apparently is not the case.
I will certainly not take offense if the governor vetoes it. I am so sorry.
Ed Redd
I have had a telephone conversation with Senator Stephenson which was very disturbing. It solidified my belief that he had not thought this bill and its consequences through. I have spoken with the curriculum director for Cache County, Curt Jenkins, and I echo his concerns that implementing this bill could cause a tremendous problem for districts when they have purchased textbooks and then a parent panel decides that there is something not appropriate and that can cause a firestorm. We are a small district and are getting ready to purchase math materials at a cost of $600,000.00-what do we do if someone with an agenda, and there is always an agenda makes this their target?
I am a firm believer in local control. I have been a very vocal parent and have never had a problem that could not be resolved at the local level. When there have been concerns over school grading or standardized testing I did speak to Tami frequently as she was my state board representative and I felt she could be the most helpful in making a permanent change. When a parent has a problem with curriculum or instructional materials it is my belief that they should have a conversation with the teacher. If that does not resolve the problem, visit with the principal, then the curriculum director, superintendent, local school board, state school board representative. At no point do I see a need to involve 15 parents from around the state who are not familiar with that particular school district or charter school's curriculum. As you know Utah has 42 districts and 100 charter schools; they all have the option of choosing their own curriculum. This is how it should be!
Last night on a conference call with Senator Stephenson we were able to ask him several questions. One thing that really stuck out was that he kept using Common Core and Curriculum interchangeably. They are not one and the same, and he should know this. We asked him when we would we review these complaints? How many complaints would we review? Who would do the research? I took notes. Here is his response- "You can review as many or as few complaints as you like. You won't be sequestered. You can do it on your own time from home or at work, whenever you like. You will be like the Supreme Court without any authority. You will shine a bright light on the common core. Wouldn't you like to know every complaint about our core? I would! The USOE will have to do all of your research and provide you with all of the information you need. They will have to log each complaint and then you can decide which complaints you will hear, it will all be up to you."
To me it sounded a lot like make up the rules as you go!
There is no fiscal note attached to this bill. When we asked him about this he said it was because the USOE had said that they could do it within their existing budget. When we asked him if he had told them they would be doing all of our research, which would be lengthy as we would know nothing about the curriculum in all the areas of the state, he admitted that he had not discussed that with them. Again, he kept referring to this as the 'common core complaint' review. That is not what his bill says at all.
Please consider the consequences and veto this bill. If more transparency is needed might I suggest appointing parents to the already existing Instructional Materials Commission. Our education dollars are too few and too valuable to put at risk the curriculum in the hands of parents who are not trained nor elected to make these decisions.
Sincerely,
Alean Hunt
http://fox13now.com/2014/04/02/governor-vetoes-3-bills-passed-by-the-utah-state-legislature/
http://video-static.clipsyndicate.com/zStorage/syndicaster2/226/2014/04/03/21/08/533dcda911cd.mp4
The next bill that was up was SB 122.
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