It would have been nice if our state Legislature had figured out a way to select the state school board constitutionally during the last legislative session, but they didn’t. And what is kind of interesting is that our current state school superintendent was selected by the state school board, which includes unconstitutionally selected board members who continue in their positions, even though they were illegally selected, which doesn’t seem right.
And now, Gov. Gary Herbert has nominated Stan Lockhart, a lobbyist for a Utah-based memory chip manufacturer, to fill the board seat, which was held by an unconstitutionally selected board member. As I remember, the company Mr. Lockhart lobbies for would have benefited if Becky Lockhart’s plan to use $300 million of the education budget to purchase personal electronic devices for all Utah students had been approved, which would have caused another drop in pay for public school teachers and an increase in class size. Wouldn’t his selection be kind of a conflict of interest?
Fred Ash
Sandy