A Letter from USBA's President,
Kristi Swett

The legislative session is in full swing, with two weeks remaining, the pace will begin to pick-up to keep up with the multitude of education bills. Many thanks to all of you who are talking to your representatives about critical bills, attending the JLC (Joint Legislative Committee) meetings, and participated in our Day on the Hill.

On March 6^th, our State School Board will be meeting and discussing the ESEA waiver and whether to re-apply or not. Although they have until March 31^st to notify the U.S. Department of Education, the hope is the board will decide quickly and move to re-apply. I would urge each of you to write an email, send a letter, or call your state board representative to voice your concerns and encourage a quick decision.

The issue which needs all of our attention right now, are the multiple bills proposing the state and local school boards be elected through a partisan election. On February 17^th, a poll published by Utah Policy and conducted by Dan Jones and Associates revealed 27% of Utahns favor partisan election of school board candidates, while 56% favored non-partisan election. The JLC (Joint Legislative Committee) has taken the position of direct non-partisan elections as a priority for many years. Again, I would urge you to contact your representatives and ask them to oppose legislation that would change our current election laws for local boards.

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Legislative Update - Dr. Patti Harrington

I wish to provide an update on a potential major funding loss for our schools, if it is not resolved, and I urge your action ASAP:

Some Background:

With the passage of SB01S1 (the base budget for education for FY16), there was a recommendation by the Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee to restore funding to the FY15 amounts but redistribute some funds. The diversion of $20,555,400 in property tax revenue away from school districts to charter schools remained as one of their recommendations. This diversion doubles the amount taken from our district schools and sends it to charter school governing boards, where there is no transparency or accountability of property tax use as governing board members are not elected officials.

This was a major change in policy, redefining the calculation of the 25% heretofore paid out of district revenues, and then doubling the new definition/calculation to 50%, creating new, more dramatic inequities.

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