The current push to remove the Utah Basic Skills Competency Test along with U-PASS is a push in the wrong direction. Legislators and the teachers' unions point out that UBSCT is duplicative of testing done for U-PASS; but in the next breath they are calling for an end to U-PASS. Both, or at minimum, one of these tests are necessary to test basic competency and to ensure that no student graduates without having basic understanding in core curriculum.
Nationally, Utah's students in fourth and eighth grade test below the 2002 national average in writing skills and just barely at the 2000 national average in math skills. It appears that this is an attempt by the schools to get out of the financial and physical "burden" of actually ensuring that every student gets educated. The fact is, competency testing works.
Teachers' unions need to realize that without students, they wouldn't have a job. And legislators need to get a backbone and actually put children ahead of their pocketbooks. Perhaps a competency test on legislators is money better spent.
Kara Thompson
Salt Lake City