A Letter from USBA's President, Peggy Jo Kennett

August was a busy month! Thanks to everyone who attended the Pre-Delegate and Delegate Assembly meetings, where we adopted the 2014 legislative priorities for USBA/USSA/UASBO. UPEC (Utah Public Education Coalition) met weekly to work on legislative issues. The USBA Officers were able to meet with 4 members of the Utah Congressional Delegation while they were in Utah during the August break from Congress. We met with Senator Mike Lee, Representative Rob Bishop, Representative Jim Matheson, and Representative Chris Stewart. Utah has great representation on the national level and all of our Congressmen are interested in our education issues. Kristi Swett and I attended the NSBA President's Retreat and participated in some great training activities. Plus all of us were getting ready to start another school year!

The Leadership Academy will be held at the Zermatt Resort in Midway on September 5-7. This will be an excellent professional development for school board members, with the added bonus that the presentations and workshops fulfill Master Board Award requirements.
 
Local School Boards do matter, and all of these activities help us become more relevant!

NSBA News - JoDee Sundberg

While serving on several committees on the NSBA board including Delegate Assembly, Finance and Constitution/ByLaws we have been working on improving the functions of the national association and how we can better serve our local school boards. There has been considerable dialog and research on best practice and how to keep local governance intact.
 
We have also had considerable dialog on current national and local issues. As we all have experienced, public education continues to be under attack. Organizations who would like to privatize education implement their ideology's across the nation seeking for those who will further their cause. One such organization is the American Legislative Exchange Council. According to ALEC's Report Card on American Education, they state four major outcomes they will seek to achieve in the upcoming months and years:

1. REDUCING the influence of, or elimination of, local school districts and SCHOOL BOARDS.
2. PRIVATIZING education through vouchers, charters and tax incentives.
3. INCREASING student testing and reporting.
4. INTRODUCING market factors into schools, particularly the teaching profession.

In short, ALEC seeks to undo much of the work and power of school boards. This has great concern to those serving on the national as well as the state level. We will continue to make our plan of how we can be the advocates for public education and the upfront leaders in supporting public education. Click here to read the full article.