Their reporting seems to go something like this: "The public defeat of vouchers at the polls last November must really stick in their craw, so watch out, public education, they are gunning for you!"
First let me clarify that the Republicans in the Legislature do not feel embarrassed or vindictive because the voucher law was defeated in November. Instead, we see a political system of checks and balances operating just as it was intended.
The Legislature passed the voucher bill and the governor signed it into law because we thought vouchers would provide some relief to an overburdened public education system. The public disagreed with this course of action and voted it down.
This is our system of government, our checks and balances operating as designed. There are many possible solutions to the challenges faced by public education. Other options will continue to be explored, but we respect the will of the people when they enact their lawful "check" in the system.
As far as payback goes, we do intend to spread some payback around, but not the kind Paul Rolly and others in the media report. As legislators, we have nothing but the highest regard for our public school teachers and the work they do. Both of my parents and my daughter are educators and I hold them in the highest regard.
Last year, we showed our thanks and respect to teachers by giving each teacher a $2,500 raise and a $1,000 bonus. Unfortunately, accounting errors left some districts short of the total needed to fully enact the raises. The Legislature has publicly promised to address the accounting errors and fulfill this promise.
As payback for a job well done, we pledge this session to authorize another $2,500 raise for teachers. This is a commitment to public education of $100 million in new ongoing funding.
Our teachers have labored in lean years and deserve some payback in years when the state budget can support additional funding. In addition to rewarding our hard-working teachers, we have also sought to address the teacher shortage by increasing the starting wage for teachers.
Our commitment to public education is not something we take lightly. In the past two years, the Legislature has appropriated almost $1 billion (that's billion with a "b") in new ongoing funding to assist teachers in the classroom. The economic prosperity the state has enjoyed in recent years has been shared very generously with public education.
As the youngest state in the nation, we have special educational challenges. We have many children to educate and finite funds with which to do it. Our teachers do a wonderful job with the available resources and we hope to give them even more resources this session.
In addition to raises for teachers we also hope to provide additional funding to enable more technology in the classroom, reading and math programs in K-3 and more supplies for the classroom, all in an effort to help our teachers. We are studying new ideas to reduce class size, especially in core subject areas.
I think the teachers and the public education system will be very pleased with the payback coming their way this session. I hope we can put this talk of vindictive payback by the Legislature behind us and move forward collectively as we work on a brighter future.
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* REP. DAVID CLARK, R-SANTA CLARA is majority leader in the Utah House of Representatives.
