An episode of the Simpsons begins this way: Bart and Milhouse are standing atop a bridge, spitting on the cars underneath as they pass. Bart turns to Milhouse and says, “Milhouse, do ya ever think about the people in those cars?” Milhouse responds, “Uh, I try not to. It makes it harder to spit on them.”
It’s conceivable that a similar conversation could ensue on Utah’s capitol hill among GOP leadership: “Senator, do you ever think about the half million children attending public schools in Utah?” The response: “Uh, I try not to. It makes it harder to spit on them.”
In all fairness, Utah’s highly conservative GOP leadership believes their platform for educating Utah’s children is morally and economically right. That platform includes making education competitive through privatizing schools, charging public schools with greater accountability, establishing block grants to aid in funding and maintaining tax exemptions for parents with dependent children. Their intentions arise from sincere concern for children and their philosophical groundings. In other words, Utahns love to have children and they love their conservative values.
The friction comes when the small government ideology in conservatism collides with big family values. The result of this collision is that Utah ranks 51st in the nation in per pupil spending behind all of the other states and Washington, D.C. Let’s take a look at where the GOP has gone awry.
The GOP platform for providing quality education stems from micro-economics-style logic?if schools function under private pecuniary determinates, then they have to remain innovative to survive in the market with competing schools.
If privatization fails to go through, then accountability remains as the next best alternative. By imposing stringent accountability measures upon schools (e.g., Pres. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act, the state’s U-PASS), government can moderate for quality whereas market pressures would perform the same function under idyllic privatized settings.
Unfortunately, these platforms fail to consider Utah’s unique demographic and continue to place greater strains on Utah’s already financially overburdened education system.
Consider privatization. Republican Rep. John Swallow’s House Bill 138 last February endorsed “tuition tax credits,” which give a $1500 tax credit to tax payers who send their children to private schools. The UEA opposed this bill, claiming that it “drain[s] valuable resources from public schools while only providing a benefit to a select few.” Those select few are the 3 percent of Utah families whose children do not attend public schools. This legislation fails to consider the majority?97 percent?of Utah’s children.
Consider also accountability. Since privatization is far from realizable, accountability is playing an ever encroaching role in Utah’s public education sphere. Teacher morale has already suffered as a result. According to a recent Salt Lake Tribune article, some teachers do not want children with special needs in their classrooms. They fear that these children’s low test scores will paint them as poor teachers.
The coercion has already occurred. In order to align test scores with Bush’s “No Child Left Behind Act,” the State Board of Education recently conceded to watered-down versions of core-curriculum tests given to first through 12th-graders. This is an indication that these tests don’t accurately reflect students’ mastery of curriculum or teachers’ effectiveness in teaching it.
Things will only get uglier. A U Bureau of Economic and Business Research study cited that by 2004, a baby-boom reverberation will hit public schools. The U.S. Department of Education projects that by 2009, enrollment in public schools will increase by 9.4 percent from 1999 figures, the sixth-largest increase in the nation.
Compounding the situation, economic forecasts appear gloomy. This will put strain on a state that already devotes 45 percent of its budget to public education.
The peculiarities of Utah’s demography call for creative legislation, not the same old baggage that the GOP leadership continues to shove down the throat of public schooling. The GOP leadership has stumbled over a type of “having our cake and eating it too” contradiction. They want to have lots of children, but don’t want to pay for them to go to school.
In all fairness, Utah already ranks 16th in the nation in dollars spent on education per $1000 of household income. What GOP leadership fails to consider is if Utah has the most school age children per capita in the nation, it should be spending the most per $1000 of household income.
In the coming election, let us vote for those who have the foresight for creative legislation which befits Utah children and Utah values. Patrice Arent’s House Bill 117 in the 2000 Legislature would have provided $60 million for public schools without increasing taxes. Pat Jones has another novel idea: suspend tax exemptions for households with dependent children and give the money to public education, where 97 percent of Utah children are beneficiaries.
As times get harder for public education in Utah due to swells in enrollment and lulls in the economic sector, let’s shake off the shackles of inept legislation and take courage to care for our children and our values.
Daniel welcomes feedback at [email protected]. Send letters to the editor to [email protected].