Gov. Mike Leavitt on Tuesday denounced the Utah School Boards Association for filing a lawsuit challenging oversight of upcoming charter schools.
"They ought to get behind this powerful engine for change," Leavitt told about 250 members of the Salt Lake Rotary Club, adding he was discouraged by the USBA's move.The USBA earlier this month filed a lawsuit in 3rd District Court against the Utah Board of Education, questioning whether the state board has legal authority to govern schools in a local school board's jurisdiction. The "friendly declaratory judgment action" seeks at-tor-ney's fees and a court interpretation of the law.
A handful of local school boards, including the Granite Board of Education, have spoken against the USBA lawsuit, the governor noted.
The State Board of Education was granted oversight power of up to eight pilot schools allowed under charter school legislation approved last March.
So far, two charters have been granted: the Tuacahn High School for the Performing Arts near St. George and the Jean Massieu School, which primarily will focus on American Sign Language and hopes to locate in the Granite or Jordan school districts. The schools will begin in fall 1999.
Charter schools, specialty public schools bringing choice to the public education system and opportunities for increased parental involvement, are among the governor's pet education projects.
Leavitt's speech to the Rotary Club also included a mini- "state of the state" address, which focused primarily on the state of education and I-15 reconstruction.
- Though Utah makes a smaller per capita investment in public education than any other state in the union, Leavitt said schools are using what money they do get efficiently and admirably.
"It's not something we go around bragging about," he said, "but it's a miracle" what the state has done with limited resources. American College Test (ACT) scores are on the rise, Leavitt said, and more Utahns enroll in - and pass - advance placement courses than in any other state. Class sizes are decreasing, and 97 percent of Utah high schools are connected to the Internet.
There is room for improvement, though.
Middle schools have been "dramatically underemphasized," he said, and Utahns don't seem to be willing enough to get rid of poor teachers.
Utahns have to get over a "cultural impediment" which stops them from getting poor-quality teachers fired, Leavitt said.
"There are teachers who ought not be a part of the system who are," he said. And, it is the obligation of administrators and parents to find a way to transition them out of the system in an orderly fashion.
At the same time, Leavitt said it is important to reward teachers and schools that are excelling. He advocated the use of an incentive system to motivate teachers to set high, measurable goals, and to instill in them a "healthy sense of competition."
Higher education is also facing challenges as Utah moves into the next century.
"The mission of higher education is not only to manage the education of a steady stream of new workers," he said, but to lift society to an entirely new level of knowledge, rapidly and repeatedly.
- Leavitt assured listeners the quality of life along the Wasatch Front will continue to improve, especially as I-15 reconstruction nears completion.
The project is ahead of schedule and under budget, he said. To date, $522 million has been expended, at a rate of nearly $1 million per day.
Thirty-six percent of the project has been completed, with 28 percent of the estimated construction period behind us, he said.
Leavitt complimented commuters on the way they've adjusted to the construction and urged people to continue to be patient.
"Things have never been brighter in this state," he said. "The promise is brighter and the future more optimistic . . . And I-15 will be done."