Utah's State Crustacean, the Brine Shrimp

Well, it had to happen eventually. After all, what State could operate without the proper actions taken?

Our 2023 legislature has done the right thing at last. A massive problem has been identified, discussed and now corrected, hopefully in time to ward off approaching danger.  

Utah finally has its very own state crustacean. I mean, how did we make it through all this time since statehood without the Brine Shrimp as our state crustacean, really? How many really important things has Utah missed out on by not having a state crustacean in the last 127 years?  It is comforting to know our elected legislators have come to our rescue and taken care of this very important piece of business. You know we can trust them with anything now, because they have taken the time and energy to alleviate this deficiency in our standings among the other 49 states.

So, our gallant legislators are off to solve another of Utah's problems, with the same can-do attitude and attention to detail deployed on the State Crustacean issue. I'm so glad they are looking out for our best interests. These guys (and gals, ok) can do no wrong! I have visions of state representative Judy Weeks Rohner (R-West Valley City) and state senator John D Johnson (R-Ogden) suited up in armor, riding their war horses into the heat of the west desert looking to slay any problem foolhardy enough to enter Utah's dominion. 

When you go knighting around, as our legislature does, looking for injustices and issues needing solving, why the problems just leap up at you like a rattlesnake! 

The very first problem our legislators stumbled upon that needed a solution is the sales tax on food. (Ok, we really had to get the high school transgender thing taken care of first, but stay with the story here, please). After all, Senator Johnson has a PhD in Economics; he used his great expensive education, training and skills to conclude that the sales tax on food was a regressive tax that really hurt lower income people. So he and Representative Rohner put forth a bill to eliminate the state sales tax on food! Now, this would be a pretty popular move on the Utah Legislators part, as everybody buys food at one point or another. This issue could stand on its on merits and everybody that buys food would applaud the courageous actions by our legislators. It's a win-win-win! 

Never ones to let a good deal go unpunished, the Utah Legislators looked around for another problem to slay and lo and behold, right in front of them, right in our state constitution in fact, there it was: the Holy Grail for the Utah Legislature. The very brave and talented state senator, Daniel McCay (R-Salt Lake County) proposed a Senate Joint Resolution that would allow the legislators to breath a great sigh of relief.  

You see, by the Constitution of the great State of Utah, all of the monies collected as income tax revenue have to be spent on K-12 and higher education, and children and individuals with a disability. Our legislators have been bothered by this little detail for many, many years; and although many efforts to change this part of the state  constitution have been put forward, none have succeeded yet.    

Now they had found just to weapon to make those holdout voters agree with the enlightened legislators and take that pesky rule off the books. If they tied the elimination of the sales tax on food to a constitutional amendment that would remove the lock on income taxes going to schools, think of the great things they could accomplish with all that money! And who wouldn't want to eliminate the sales tax on food? Why, can you even imagine how that sounds-"I want to pay sales tax on food so our students can continue to be educated with state tax funds." That's not a campaign slogan I want to paint on my horse and buggy. 

So, this win will be a biggie for the legislature. By tying the elimination of the food sales tax to doing away with that pesky line in the state constitution that controls the use of state income taxes, they will have managed to further reduce the money they send to public schools, and make themselves look like nice people for doing away with the food sales tax. Now they will have more money to use as offsets for tax cuts to rich donors, and pet projects like a gondola. 

If we the voters vote against the constitutional amendment, we will continue to have a regressive tax on food that targets the lower income population. If we vote yes on the amendment, we will have given the legislature permission to starve public education. Either way, it will feel like we are on the wrong end of a jousting lance.

We, the taxpayers, get the shaft no matter what. Why do we keep insisting on electing Republicans? 

Thanks for reading; as always, your comments are welcome and appreciated. Just click on the word "comments" in the white box below. 

R. M. "Bob" Hartman

 

Mike Lee & Social Security

This will, in all probability, be my shortest post on record. Mike Lee, a.k.a. "shortsell Lee" Utah's "Senior Senator" (by virtue of the sad fact he is still in office) vowed in 2010, when he was running for the U.S. Senate 

"to phase out Social Security, pull it up by it's roots, and get rid of it." 

Why, in the name of all that is fair and just, honest and unselfish, virtuous and moral, did the citizens of Utah elect him? 

And why is he still in office? 

I know, being a Republican in Utah is a great advantage, but really, people.

Thanks for reading, your comments are always welcome and appreciated. Just click the word "comments" in the white box below. 

R.M. "Bob" Hartman

Education, and Some Thoughts Thereon

Before I begin this article: I am not an educator, nor are my spouse or our children. I do have nuclear family that works, and has worked, in many aspects of education, for which I am grateful. 

Education, more specifically public education, is in the news almost daily. Loud voices shouting to be heard in a public square trying to be the dominate role in spending public money and educating the vast majority of America's youth. I've some thoughts I'd like to share with you; I hope this provokes thought on your part, and discussion between you, your families, neighbors, school boards, and politicians. And please, don't leave your children out of the discussion! 

A free, public education is an idea that was new and untried when this country was founded. The balance of the civilized world saw no need for the masses to know any more than was necessary for their daily lives and employments or servitudes. It took a long time, and a great deal of protesting, fighting, court action, governmental decrees and just plain old fashioned hard work for our educational system to reach the point it is at today. Now, don't stop reading at this point. Take a deep breath and continue with me. In no small part, America's experiment with an educated populace has lead to some of the greatest changes in education worldwide; it is now the norm for children to go to public schools in most developed, and many developing,  countries. (We could pause here to pat ourselves on the back for leading the world in this regard, but, we have other items on the agenda.)

It has become a revolting national pastime to fault public schools, and the teachers therein, for all of societies evils and ills; to accuse them with charges of malfeasance and dereliction of duty, improper education, grooming, etc., ad nauseam. Politicians, pundits,  TV personalities, podcasters, and commentators who should in fact have a better grip on reality jump on these perceived iniquities to rack up click points, ratings, and cash, spreading these and other perverse embellished fabrications to forward their own political, financial or social agendas.

Regarding the above, I can hear my Grandmother (who was, by the way, a teacher herself) saying "They are lying to you, Robert. Just lying to you."

It is abhorrent, to any rational mind, for school board meetings to be destroyed by a dullard with a microphone proclaiming without evidence or fact that K-12 educators are teaching Critical Race Theory. The idea, spread by nefarious individuals with an axe to grind and no wood that need splitting, that the educators of our youth are grooming them to some perceived homosexual agenda is disgusting beyond words. (I wrote about litter boxes in classrooms in a previous article.) Demanding that certain books be removed from classrooms on the basis of a sentence, paragraph, or character taken out of context displays not a high moral stance or great intellectual prowess; instead ignorance, fear of new or strange ideas, and lack of cognitive reasoning skills are showcased for the world to see. Clamoring for history, both world and American, to be taught as it was in 1950, is to ignore reality and places our youth at a great disadvantage relative to interaction with the peoples of other countries in our shared world. To declare that The United States of America is and always has been perfect in every detail, and that education should develop around that thought, is to deny the very first sentence in the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States:". . . in Order to form a more perfect Union. . . ".

At times, the people screaming the loudest at school board meetings about these perceived faults do not even have students in the schools controlled by that particular school board. They are simply following some item of interest from social media. (In Utah, our legislature just tried banning children under the age of 13 from using social media. Perhaps we should ban the parents from the same.) The inability of the protestors to show proof of the nonsensical claims they make evidently does not embarrass them in the least; it seems to be a badge of honor to say, "just do the research and you will find I'm right." Reality finds in most cases they are not right. It doesn't appear they have an agenda to correct the imagined faults (other than to fire teachers and school board members), they are just interested in causing confusion and disruption. Some, however, do have an agenda; they want education, and in fact the country, turned back to what they grew up with in the 1950's or early 60's. 

Our country, and the world around us, is changing at lightning speed. The internet, cell phones, satellite technology, even the pandemic cause structural and interpersonal changes unprecedented in our history. The factual changes in the demographics of our country, the increase of business and employment opportunities around the world, and the immediacy of today's news reporting, has laid open what is to some an unthinkable and unbearable reality; we are a more diverse nation than previously understood, and we are not a perfect nation by any standard of civilization. Education, more exactly public education is one tool we have as a country to help us keep up with the changes, innovations and discoveries rapidly affecting our lives. Rather than destroy the educational system that is addressing and teaching about these innovations, changes, discoveries and actualities, rather than strip educators of the tools and resources they need to prepare our youth to enter college, adulthood, employment and the challenges they will face in the near future, we need to enhance our children's educational opportunities, and support our public schools, the teachers, staff, and administrators therein, and push back against those who would, out of fear and ignorance, deprive our youth of the same opportunities we had growing up and being educated in public schools. Our parents, and the leaders of this country in the past, tried to provide us with the best education possible at the time. It is our responsibility to do the same for the youth of today; it is our duty to give all of our youth every opportunity possible to enjoy the Great American Dream.  

And before I leave you, dear reader, here are some FACTs for you to digest. Regardless of all the talk about how our schools are failing, how our children are not getting the same education we ourselves received, the facts tell a different story. 

The average SAT scores for high school students in 1972 were: Math, 509; Critical reading, 530. The average SAT scores for 2021 (the last year available) were: Math, 528; Critical reading, 533. The lowest average score for Math was 492, in 1981; for Critical reading 494 in 2016. The highest average scores for both were in 2021. 

I do have a response I use when someone tells me about the CRT education, the Great White Replacement Theory, the grooming of our children, etc. I simply and quietly ask for the source material they are sharing.  

Thank you for reading, I do appreciate your taking the time to hear me out, particularly on this divisive and challenging subject. I also appreciate any comments you would like to leave, just click on the word "comments" in the white box below. 

R. M. "Bob" Hartman

Edit: The SAT scores shown above are national averages, I have added the word average where appropriate. Thank  you PJA 02/05/2023 RMH

          

     

HB 215- The Utah Legislature's Hand Empties Your Wallet Program.

 It's all over but the crying, and the lawsuits. Governor Spencer "the Spineless" Cox has signed HB215 into law. Now we go to the courts, and Utah will spend an uncountable amount of money trying to defend a bill that never should have been written. 

It's a monetary tragedy write large on the backs of Utah taxpayers. A "law" that sends twice as much money to a private religious school as to a public school, with little to no regard as to the qualifications of the private school. In this piece of legislation, and yes I have read it, if there are less than 150 paid employees in the private school, there is no requirement for teaching credentials or for passing a background check. 

My grandchildren's public school receives $4,038.00 for each and every child enrolled. Move the children to a local charter or private school, or "Qualified Provider" and that entity will receive $8,000.00 per student enrolled. Why? Because the legislature can do it and they can't be held accountable.  

So, does $8,000.00 pay for a years education at Judge Memorial Catholic High School in Salt Lake City? Nope. Here, from the school's web page, is the tuition and fee structure. 

Tuition, $13,950.00; Registration Fee $600.00; Enrollment Fee $100.00 the first year, $75.00 each year thereafter; Graduation Fee $150.00. Do the math, for a first-year student, the total is $14,650.00, the senior year, $14,775.00. All athletic fees, AP classes, busing, etc., are add-ons. Uniforms are not included. In total fairness to Judge Memorial, on the website it explains that scholarships and financial aid are available. So, will  the Utah Fits All Scholarship Program move a large number of new students to Judge Memorial? Probably not, there is still a big gap between the tuition/fees and the money provided by the program, a gap of $6,650.00. I don't think, for most families, the $8,000 from the UFASP will make the difference. What it does mean is the families of students already attending Judge Memorial, and every other private/charter/qualified provider educational provider have just been given an $8,000.00 gift from the Utah state taxpayers-that is, from you and I. 

What do the students have to do to receive this gift? Simply apply. The "qualifications" for this scholarship are basically non-existent. If you are a student in the great state of Utah, you qualify. The majority of  other states that offer vouchers tie the voucher to income limits; and/or limit the amount of the voucher to the amount of the Weighted Pupil Unit (WPU) for that year. Utah, in its constant effort to be special, is the only state I could find that does not take either  of those factors into account. Many of  voucher programs in other states are tax credit programs, as opposed Utah's payment program.

Utah now joins 16 states and the District of Columbia in providing school choice vouchers; although some, like Utah, call them  scholarships, The name doesn't matter, it's all the same shell game. Take taxpayer education money and give it to private schools. 

The Utah Fits All Scholarship Program? It should be called The Utah Legislature's Hand Empties Your Wallet Program. 

I'm pretty sure some lawsuits will be filed, if I find out about them, I will post an article. 

Thanks for reading, your comments are always welcome. Just click on the word "comment" in the white box below. 

R. M. "Bob" Hartman

Source: Education Commission of the States.