Duchesne County School Board and Administration have distributed a letter in response to House Bill 215 ‘Funding for Teacher Salaries and Optional Education Opportunities’. The bill proposes giving parents public education money for private school or home school while also including an over $4,000 dollar salary increase for teachers. The bill was passed by the House on January 20th after a rule for the bill to be on the reading calendar for 24 hours before being voted on was suspended. Despite stirring up controversy for rushing the bill along, the bill kept up the pace this week with the Senate passing its 2nd reading on January 25th with just one more vote needed to send it to the Governor’s desk. The DCSD response reflects many of the concerns and opposition coming forward about the bill, including the following issues: Why teacher salaries and student funding are wrapped into one bill and why the House voted down the proposal to split the issues; Why the amount proposed toward private schooling is twice the dollar amount as the public education system; Why the pay increase does not address classified employees; Why the private education does not have the same accountability for student learning compared to public school; And why the bill was rushed through the House without adequate dialogue with all parties, among other concerns. The entire letter can be viewed on the Duchesne County School District Facebook page.
