State of Utah Archives: on Education
Dan Liljenquist:
Let parents pick home, private, charter, or public
There is no role for the federal government in education. When the federal Department of Education was created in 1979, it took education out of the hands of families and the states and moved it to Washington, attempting to create a one-size-fits-all
program.Parents should have the right to decide which educational option is best for them. Parents should have the ability to select how and where their child is educated, whether that be home, private, neighborhood charter schools or public schools.
Source: 2012 Senate campaign website, danforutah.com
May 24, 2012
Gary Herbert:
Continue to increase funding for public schools
Utah has long been committed to funding our public schools, our colleges and universities, and our technical institutions. In fact, few states in the country spend as much of their overall budgets on education as we do. Our unique demographics--which is
a way of saying we have larger families--mean we must continue to increase funding to maintain and enhance the solid education and training our students receive. I cannot say enough about the importance of supporting public education.
Source: Utah 2010 State of the State Address
Jan 26, 2010
Jon Huntsman:
UCAT system: technical college for industry needs
Workforce demands in quantitative skills continue to increase; yet, our workforce preparation is inadequate. We can and must do better in embracing our knowledge-based economy. The Utah College of Applied Technology was created to be responsive to
industry and meet the demands of a growing technical workforce. While there are still issues to be ironed out, but we all agree on the goal: a UCAT system that is more responsive to real-time business needs and is more accessible to Utah's students.
Source: Utah 2009 State of the State address
Jan 27, 2009
Jon Huntsman:
Early learning is critical; so are languages & math
Early childhood learning is critical for their long-term success, quality of life and our state's competitive edge in attracting world-class jobs. Early results indicate kindergarten students are
6 times better prepared for a successful first grade experience if they attended full-day kindergarten. We are leading the nation in educating our kids in 21st century languages like Chinese and Arabic. So, to the thousands of students studying
Mandarin Chinese I say: Gongx gongx. "Congratulations!"
Yet, our kids' literacy in these critical foreign languages must be matched by their mastery of numbers, an area that is in need of strengthening. We must keep pace.
Through additional emphasis and reprioritizing, I have asked both public and higher ed to make this year the "Year of Math."
Source: Utah 2009 State of the State address
Jan 27, 2009
Jon Huntsman:
To produce first-rate students, pay for first-rate teachers
Our strong economy now allows us the opportunity to fortify our foundations for the future. These foundations--which include education, the economy, quality of life, and governance--each has a set of reinforcing fundamentals.
The first foundation is education.When I speak of focusing on our fundamentals, I speak of teacher compensation. Teaching must be reinforced as being among the most noble of pursuits. We must compensate fairly those who inspire our next generation of
Utahns. If we hope to produce first-rate students, we must have first-rate teachers.
Educational excellence begins with the recruitment, retention and commitment of teachers who are passionate about educating our youth--the only future we have.
I refuse to stand by idly as we lose good educators to other states in our region. Together with my colleagues in the legislature, we have made significant strides in bolstering education the last two years. We can do more. We must do more.
Source: Utah 2007 State of the State address
Jan 16, 2007
Jon Huntsman:
School choice & competition is healthy for public schools
School choice is a top priority. The Special Needs Scholarship Bill should be passed, including broader student categories & participation. This legislation will provide a marketplace test for tuition tax credits to assess the impact of education choice
on Utah schools.We must be mindful that 97% of Utah’s students are enrolled in public schools. It’s imperative that we keep them strong. Competition is healthy and certainly does not exclude mutually beneficial dialogue that shares ideas, techniques %
problem solving tools to improve our children’s education. Failure to attempt improvement in education through market forces means that we are not striving to improve our children’s opportunities for learning.
Partnerships between public education and
the business community are beneficial and should be strengthened as a potential source of revenue. The private sector has developed and continues to develop practices and methods applicable to education, which can be shared with educators and parents.
Source: Gubernatorial website, www.utah.gov/governor/
Nov 11, 2006
Mike Leavitt:
Emphasize market relevance in state colleges
Our education emphasis can not stop in our primary grades. All Utahns need access to higher education. We are expanding our system of branch campuses, and increasing the velocity of our entire system.
I have challenged the Board of Regents to reduce the time students take to get a 4-year degree to 4-years. We also need to double in five years and triple in eight years the number of engineering, computer science and tech graduates in Utah universities,
colleges and applied technology centers. Let this be the beginning of a new emphasis on market relevance in the allocation of resources at our colleges and universities. I have proposed an aggressive building program
to add the physical capacity on our campuses, and funding to assure we have qualified faculty and up-to-date equipment. We need 15,000 engineering and computer science students by 2005.Our economic future depends on it.
Source: 2001 State of the State address to the Utah legislature
Jan 16, 2001
Mike Leavitt:
14.8% increase in funding for public education
Education and economic expansion have never been closer allies. For that reason, I have proposed a four-year education improvement plan starting this year with a giant step forward in funding, 14.8%.
The plan calls for more textbooks, class size reduction and paying teachers equivalent with other professionals.
Source: 2001 State of the State address to the Utah legislature
Jan 16, 2001
Mike Leavitt:
U-PASS: Accountability and skills testing in every grade
By the end of next year, we will have put into operation our accountability system, U-PASS. Students will be tested continually to assure they are learning the necessary skills, especially in reading.
Every child will read at grade level, or we will provide extra help until they do. Special consideration needs to be given to the progress of our ethnic minority students. We are losing too many of them.
Source: 2001 State of the State address to the Utah legislature
Jan 16, 2001
Page last updated: Jan 31, 2013