This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
When the Legislature passed the bill in 2013 that led to a controversial school-grading system, some educators hinted at a suspected hidden motive.
Critics alleged that the measure — pushed by Parents for Choice in Education (PCE), an advocate for private-school vouchers, home-school assistance and charter-school expansion — set up targeted schools to fail.
And, some fear, the Republican-dominated Legislature has been the toady for the PCE agenda.
The system gives letter grades to public schools with the stated intent that, once a school receives a poor grade, it will have incentive to improve. It hails from a Florida model, which has changed several times since it first passed due to a plethora of problems and complaints.
Utah's school grades are gleaned from student performance on SAGE tests, but critics argue the assessment doesn't consider demographic influences that would drive down scores.
Educators became suspicious when they saw an item on the Legislature's 2013 Master Study Resolution, which lists issues to be examined at interim committee meetings between official legislative sessions.
That item proposed automatically changing a traditional neighborhood school to a charter school if it received failing grades three years in a row.
After that notion began getting attention from skeptical educators, it never evolved into an actual bill — until now.
A list of measures proposed by Sen. Aaron Osmond, R-South Jordan, for the 2015 legislative session, which starts Jan. 26, includes a measure titled "School Accountability Amendments." The bill is still in progress, so the text is not available. But Osmond says on his website that the proposal would "authorize the state Board of Education to convert a consistently failing school into a state-operated charter school."
So there it is. A back-door way to drop traditional neighborhood schools and add charters. Just what the PCE doctor ordered.
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Proof in the pudding • The push to convert neighborhood schools worries some, especially after a recent report from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools that gave Utah charters a poor grade for innovation, noted they don't outperform traditional schools and do not serve the majority of high-needs students.
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Fly right • Sen. Mike Lee and newly elected U.S. Rep. Mia Love were spotted on a flight Monday from Salt Lake City to Washington, D.C.
Both are self-proclaimed fiscally responsible Republicans. Both flew first class.