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Education took center stage Saturday at the Utah Eagle Forum's annual convention, where Utah's most visible moral-issues activists attacked a new way of teaching reading, writing and math.
At issue is Common Core State Standards, new academic guidelines being adopted by most states as a way to better prepare students for college and careers. While Common Core has its supporters, many in attendance at the Eagle Forum's meeting Saturday were against it.
"We're in big trouble in our public education system," said Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, who told a group of several hundred members of the Utah Eagle Forum meeting at the downtown Salt Lake City Radisson hotel that socialism is creeping into school curriculums in the state.
In recent days, Buttars has said he wants the statve Board of Education to reconsider its decision last year to go along with Common Core State Standards. Buttars also has introduced a Senate Joint Resolution on state Board of Education Authority, designed in part, he said, to address the issue of special interests promoting questionable agendas — like Common Core — in Utah's school system.
Several speakers at Saturday's convention said schools are promoting an "anti-family" agenda.
Susan Schnell, a Utah County parent who has challenged the Alpine School District over how it is teaches history in sixth grade, challenged parents to be more involved in their children's education and to better know what they are being taught.