Bobbie Bicknell Coray, Reporter
Rich Civic Times
RANDOLPH, Utah.
December 19, 2017. Representative Logan Wilde, District 53, told school
board members that the legislature was concerned with how the changes to the
federal tax just passed would affect Utah.
It will have consequences for small schools. The conservative Utah Taxpayer Association
and Senator Howard Stephenson are for equalization but Wilde has districts in
his area, which includes Rich, Morgan, Summit, Daggett and Duchesne, that do
not want equalization since the formulas for rural schools may penalize them.
There are already over 300 bills written for this year and
1000 more are proposed. The legislature
is codifying the code for schools to make rules the same across the state. New bills will have to meet the new
code. The school board association has
proposed this.
“Everyone wants to fix something in schools,” said
Superintendent Dale Lamborn, “A lot of
problems are anectdotal and solve one person’s problem in one district and
really aren’t state problems and could be solved by local school boards. It probably doesn’t need to be state law.”
Wilde agreed school boards should propose the rules for
their districts. Utah Now is a
proposal which may be on the ballot this year.
It has been proposed by business leaders to add more funding for schools
so that business and industry will have well trained workers. It has caused a backlash among some
legislators who are writing punitive bills against the schools if it
passes.
Governor Herbert says
that the initiative is a double edged sword, if it passes the
legislature will feel out of the school tax loop and if it doesn’t they will
see it as the electorate doesn’t care about education funding.
Lamborn said, “if they pass it and the legislature takes away
WPU monies it will make it a wash. And some legislators are offended by that
initiative.”
“Statewide,” Wilde said, “there is a big variance in
opinion”.
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