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Richard Nelson took aim at teachers unions when responding to separate questions about school funding, Common Core and online learning Thursday evening.
Nelson, a candidate for state school board, criticized the National Education Association (NEA) and Utah Education Association (UEA) for standing in the way of innovation, and he criticized his opponent, Janet Cannon, for accepting the union's endorsement.
That endorsement, he said, meant funding from the NEA was funneled through the UEA to Cannon and other Utah Board of Education candidates.
"Ask my opponent where she gets all of her funding from," Nelson said. "I funded my campaign, 100 percent, with Utah checks."
Cannon, a former school board member, said she met only with representatives from the Utah Education Association, who offered to support her during the election. The NEA was never mentioned, she said.
"I believe in teachers. I want to support teachers," Cannon said. "They offered me an in-kind donation for the primary, which I accepted."
Disclosure forms, posted online by the Utah lieutenant governor's office, show Cannon received about $11,000 in donations from the UEA in the form of mailers and advertisements.
The donations, plus a self-funded $24 for website updates, make up Cannon's list of campaign contributions.
Nelson's disclosure forms show more than $20,000 in monetary contributions, including $1,000 from Paul S. Rogers and Associates, $1,000 from Overstock.com, $2,500 from Landesk Software and $1,000 from STEM Action PAC. He also received a combined $1,100 from Utah Sens. Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, Brian Shiozawa, R-Cottonwood Heights, and Ann Millner, R-Ogden.
Nelson received $1,500 from a couple in Palo Alto, Calif.; he also got small contributions from out-of-state donors.
The exchange between Cannon and Nelson took place at a debate Thursday evening at the American International School of Utah. It was the fifth in a series of eight state school board debates sponsored by the Utah Association of Public Charter Schools, Hinckley Institute of Politics, Sutherland Institute, United Way of Salt Lake and KSL.
The candidates are running for the board's District 8 seat, and they disagreed on several topics, including school grading and education funding.
A school's grade largely is determined by socioeconomic factors, Cannon said, and she objected to the current version of the law, which sees grades reduced if too many schools obtain A or B grades.
"We need to ask ourselves, Is school grading good for kids?" Cannon said. "Is it helping our students?"
Nelson praised school grading as "an innovative way to change the paradigm." He said the Utah Technology Council, of which he is president, adopted and began supporting a low-performing school based on its grade.
"This is an innovation that has proved itself in Florida," Nelson said. "Why wouldn't we keep it?"
On funding, Cannon said she supports reversing the inclusion of public colleges and universities in the state's education fund, and she backs a change to allow property taxes to not automatically adjust downward to remain revenue neutral when property values increase.
"I think we need to return the income tax to K-12 education," Cannon said. "And I think we should have property taxes go up with inflation."
Nelson said schools are underfunded, but lawmakers should not consider a tax increase.
Instead, he said, schools need to improve their performance, which will motivate legislators to reward the system with higher funding levels.
"Tax increases are not the first thing," Nelson said. "The first thing we need to do is change outcomes."
Educators, he said, need to be paid in a way that attracts top candidates to the profession.
"I don't have the answer for how I'm going to change all of the teachers' salaries," Nelson said. "I can fundamentally guarantee we will change funding in education and this state will become a top-five education state."
When asked about Common Core, Nelson said there was "some very good intent" behind adopting interstate grade-level benchmarks, but that the ensuing polarization shows "something is very wrong with Common Core."
And Cannon, who served on the state school board at the time of the standards' adoption, said recent statements by Utah Gov. Gary Herbert and current school board members indicate that Utah is leaving Common Core behind.
"In Utah, Common Core is pretty much a dead issue," Cannon said. "What we need to replace it with are rigorous standards."
In addition to the issue of out-of-state funding, Nelson criticized Cannon's tenure on the state school board as a period without transparency, public input or accountability.
Nelson said that in the past, he was never allowed to meet with board members as president of the technology council, and that he was instead relegated to the two minutes allotted to guests in public meetings.
"We're going to turn this board back 10 years if the right people don't get elected," Nelson said. "My opponent was a big part of that lack of transparency."
Cannon said that as a board member, she advocated for public comments at board meetings.
"Rich said he always got his two minutes," Cannon said. "I got public participation happening at the board."
The next state school board debate will be held Tuesday at Syracuse Arts Academy. The debate will feature District 4 incumbent David Thomas and his opponent, Jennifer Graviet.
Twitter: @bjaminwood