U-Talk: What do you think should be the state Legislature’s top priority?
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- Jacob Perry
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- Mardene McGrath
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- Leticia Torres
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- Logan Walker
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- Dallin Hyde
Tiana Lao, Special to the Standard-Examiner
Jacob Perry
“Better protecting kids in vulnerable positions from adults that overuse their power. Utah deals with a lot of — there are a lot of people in positions of power here that use that to take advantage of kids and those in a more vulnerable position, whether that’s single parents, young families, things like that. Utah state legislatures have a choice of trying to expand protections to kids, but instead of doing that, they prefer to focus more on less important things. So, instead of vetting teachers better, prosecuting religious leaders that take advantage of their position, and things like that, they focus more on businesses and money, things that are less important in the long run, less important to the next generation, so Utah state legislature’s want to get better at something, they should be protecting the next generation.” — Jacob Perry, Orem
“Funding for disability services. There are a lot of people in this state that can’t function on their own. They need their own people to help take care of them and help them with things like shopping and making decisions, and stuff like that, and I used to be a support coordinator for State University Services so it’s kind of dear to my heart. Increase funding to increase the hourly wage for the caretakers because they don’t get paid a whole lot. I don’t know how much it’s changed since I retired, but they don’t get paid a whole lot, and the work they do is important and difficult.” — Mardene McGrath, Pleasant Grove
“Always schools, you know? Yeah, when my kids were younger, there used to be like 30 students in one classroom, so I think they need more, like, you know, spend more money, so they can let students have more quality — more teachers — so they could spend more time with them. They always do very good, my kids, but they always complain and say, ‘Mom, I didn’t have enough time to do my work because my teacher was working with other kids.” There are always 35 kids in one classroom. That’s one of the things that I can think of.” — Leticia Torres, Lindon
“Schools, honestly, like, the school I go to just sucks, food sucks, and overall, the quality of schools are just not as good as my parents said it was, so that’s my opinion on it. I feel like they should take more surveys from the kids, and really put in perspective of what the kids would like in this school, and like, our opinions. I feel like they don’t really care about our opinions as much as adults.” — Logan Walker, Lindon
“For myself and my family, it’s been very difficult to try and get any type of first homebuyer’s assistance, so it’s really hard for me and my family, as a young family, to get into a home. You know, we’ve been renting for a while, and it’s just hard to get ahead, especially since the prices have gone up, the interest rates have gone up, as everything has skyrocketed … what are we supposed to do about that? I think it would be great to see more assistance with education, so that way it’s easier to get into a career that has more income coming into the family.” — Dallin Hyde, Pleasant Grove
Tiana Lao, Special to the Standard-Examiner
Mardene McGrath
Photos and interviews by Tiana Lao, Special to the Daily Herald.
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Leticia Torres
Logan Walker
Dallin Hyde
