Steven Baugh

Our state legislature is back in session, and, once again, legislators have the opportunity to address important educational issues facing the state. Unfortunately for us, they've too often failed to resolve key problems in the past. They spend too much time on resolutions and not near enough on substantive policy decisions, which is why the real issues keep coming up.

And what should their education priorities be this year? Spending for public education is at the top of the list. Last year's voucher vote showed that Utahns are deeply committed to excellent public education for all. We want the state to fully fund public education without diverting that support to private schools that serve only a small number of our children.

But some of our legislators still don't get it. Now they want to push tuition tax credits, another form of vouchers, for those who leave public schools. They're still more interested in the state's few private schools than they are in our public school system.

While our legislators concentrate on helping the very few, Utah class sizes remain among the highest in the country. The educational benefits of smaller class sizes are well established, so even though our teachers perform admirably with the limited resources our legislators provide, we must do better. Our schools need money to reduce class sizes, and they need a long-term plan to gradually catch up to the national average.

Another major education priority should be the recruitment and retention of public school teachers. A shortfall of 44,000 teachers is projected for the next six years. Meeting this shortfall is near impossible with the state's low teacher salaries relative to surrounding states. Many of those who graduate from Utah universities with teaching certificates take teaching jobs outside of Utah because of this salary discrepancy. It is time for the legislature to make teacher salaries a high priority and close the competitive gap with our neighboring states.

The problem of recruiting enough teachers is especially difficult in fields such as mathematics, science, and special education, where college graduates can find private-sector jobs at much higher salaries than our schools pay. But all teachers need to be rewarded with salaries that will attract them to teach in Utah's schools

Still another problem is funding for higher education. Year after year, higher education faces a shortfall between what the state provides and the actual costs of educating students. Many legislators accuse the higher-education community of whining. These same legislators point to a few higher-education salaries and accuse all higher-education faculty of being overpaid, even though the reality is that Utah's college professors are paid below the national average.

But the real issue is whether our state can afford not to invest in the future. Increased costs for education leave behind many young people (our children!) who want to attend college but can't afford to. These potential students would have been our future doctors, engineers, teachers and accountants, but they won't be able to because higher education is too pricey. The social costs of not educating our young people are far greater than the funding needed for higher education.

These are the highest-priority education issues this year. It is time to put aside the message resolutions and get to work on the issues that affect us. It's what we elected our legislators to do in the first place. Utahns are watching.

Steven Baugh, a former superintendent of the Alpine School District, is a candidate for the Utah State House of Representatives in District 58.