Latest news with #HB381
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Empowering Utah's students, industry: Gov. Spencer Cox signs bevy of education bills
The backdrop for Utah Gov. Spencer Cox's ceremonial signing of several education bills was not what one might expect. Not a chalkboard, principal's office or school desk was anywhere to be found. Instead, Cox and several state lawmakers were dwarfed by giant tractor-trailers, diesel engines and other massive equipment in the diesel/heavy duty technician lab at Davis Technical College in Kaysville. There was a reason behind Monday's nontraditional bill-signing setting: Education today in Utah is increasingly being delivered in nontraditional ways — including the college's gigantic auto-shops that functions as a 'classroom' for Utahns training for the heavy-duty transportation industry. 'This is one of my favorite places,' said Cox. 'I've had chances to to visit here often, and it's a little noisier in here than it is right now. But I'm grateful to the students that are working quietly in the background so that we can celebrate together.' The governor added that the education bills ceremoniously signed Monday signals the state's commitment to education and reaching out 'to all students — wherever they are and whatever their interests are.' Cox highlighted four new pieces of education-themed legislation, and their respective sponsors: Co-sponsored by Rep. Neil Walter, R-St. George, and Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan, HB219 is designed to help Utah charter schools improve their financial viability and accountability. 'One of the things I love about this is that it doesn't cost the state money — and we're actually going to save schools,' said Walter. 'This is a great way for us to put money back into schools and back into classrooms by working on some of the financing mechanisms — without asking taxpayers for more resources and more funds.' Walter saluted the Utah State Treasurer Office for its collaboration — and the state's charter school community. This educational reform bill aims to enhance Utah secondary students' readiness for the state's workforce by establishing and facilitating industry-recognized credentials. HB260 is designed to better align education opportunities with industry needs. The new legislation replaces the state's existing PRIME program that expanded students' access to concurrent enrollment and career and technical education certificates. 'The PRIME program was something that was making a difference, but it needed more clarity,' said the bill's co-sponsor, Sen. Ann Millner, R-Ogden. 'It needed to be simpler for students. It needed to be simpler for parents. It needed to be clear that this is an option that will allow you to go to work or go to school and continue your higher education, or both.' Millner hopes HB260 will broaden educational possibilities for Utah students. 'Our goal is that every student who wants this opportunity, in a wide range of career fields and needs that we have in the workforce, will be able to have that opportunity,' she said. Co-sponsored by Fillmore and Rep. Douglas Welton, R-Payson, HB381 amends Utah high school graduation requirements to include a course on American constitutional government and citizenship. Welton said Monday that there is a shortage of civics education. Many Americans lack the ability 'to engage meaningfully' in the vast public square. 'It doesn't matter whether you like politics or not, everyone engages in civics,' he added. 'So what (HB381) does is put a greater focus on our founding principles and institutions and our documents — including a study of the Utah Constitution, something that I think very few people in the state have ever read.' Welton said he and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle support the idea of Utah students building a strong foundation 'of what it means to be an American and what it means to be a Utahn.' A big fan of career and technical education high school programs, House Speaker Mike Schultz, co-sponsored HB447, which helps establish and support expanded CTE programs in Utah high schools called 'catalyst centers'. Schultz, R-Hooper, said Monday that technical education in Utah schools 'has been left behind for several decades' within the public education system. More CTE opportunities are needed. 'Our workforce, our businesses, our citizens and our kids are wanting more opportunities in technical education,' he said. 'This bill expands that.' Co-sponsored by Millner and Rep. Jefferson Moss, R- Saratoga Springs, SB162 is designed to enhance statewide 'portals' between talented students and employers from high-demand industries, utilizing timely data and cooperative programs. Millner said the bill was motivated by many people asking how to better prepare students for the ever-evolving workforce. Workforce experience within that workforce, she said, is absolutely critical to building technical and durable skills. SB162 structures programs that will, among other things, empower local industry to create paid, credit-earning apprenticeship opportunities for Utah students. 'That is going to help our students be better prepared, when they graduate, to enter our companies and make a real contribution,' said Millner. Cox added that SB162 better connects work and education. 'If we can help kids find what they want to do — and then have our employers actually helping to sponsor — we get the best of all worlds,' he said.
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
A superficial overhaul of general education is underway in Utah, and it's too late
Historic Old Main at Utah State University campus in Logan, Utah. (Photo by raclro via Getty Images) The American republic is lost according to both sides of the political debate, and now Utah is talking about civics education? There is no part of Utah society that has not contributed significantly to our secular sector decline since World War II, but now Utah is talking about civics education to tame our rag-tag citizens and give them a reason to be a better people? Gov. Spencer Cox recently signed two bills intended to get civics education back on track in Utah public schools and public universities, HB381 and SB334. Both these efforts, while in part well intentioned, are thoroughly cosmetic, as one might expect. Materialistic priorities will always reign supreme in a state that believes that building programs are the measure of its success. In the first place, the governor says a 'foundational civic education in our high schools will aid our students with a better understanding of our government institutions and their critical role in American society.' While a better understanding of anything is a good thing, understanding our 'government institutions' is problematic since on the national level we virtually don't have two of our three original branches of government any longer — a functioning Congress and an independent judiciary. Both these institutions have been taken over by an anti-civic movement whose current autocratic and oligarchic interests likely will be programmed into the new Utah curriculum rendering it virtually a dead letter from the get-go. The business and banking sector in Utah has led the charge into our current social and economic oblivion by focusing on the financial rapine of the middle and working classes, environmental and water supply exploitation and degradation, and a building program focused on luxury living for the well-off. And now Utah is talking about civics education? The family system has fallen into ruin due to divorce, legalized pornography, sports gambling, loss of physical fecundity in marriage, and huge declines in physical and mental health. And now Utah has decided to talk about the morals and ethics and habits of the ancestors? The churches have long been withdrawn from civic engagement and scholastic achievement, but now it's time to mend those tattered fences? Education has fallen into such a cloud of disrepair at all levels that lifelong learning is a relic of antiquity, and the entire society believes there is nothing to be gained at school any longer because school doesn't prepare youth for skilled employment in the technology sector. And now we think it is time to recover a modicum of the reason public education came into being in America in the first place? Even if Congress and the courts still had some kind of job to do in the new authoritarian scheme of things, the focus of the new civics program would still skirt the most important facet of government fundamentals, which is not the physical structure of government and the buildings and places they are housed, but the law governing the operation of the branches. Those who will be programming the new curriculum do not know nor do they care about what the written law of this country says about the operation of government. In every pronouncement of theirs in defense of the new program, they studiously ignore what the written document boldly asserts. Our Founding Fathers and Mothers will not be heard in the new curriculum. They will be silenced as they have been for generations in Utah. While one of the 'primary source documents' in the high school curriculum is 'The United States Constitution,' both our major political parties today are perfectly satisfied to just have people glance at them sideways without an ounce of explanation about how far we have departed from them today, or why, or how we can return to them. Reading the foundational documents will do some good but is not nearly enough to do substantial good for students. Reading them is like reading the scripture. After you read a passage of the scripture in English, you know what the text says, but you don't know what it means. A perfect example is a passage like, 'Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.' Everybody knows, even our smart theologians who write books about the Ten Commandments, that that verse means, 'Don't swear (out loud).' However, that is not even close to the original and authentic meaning of the passage. One needs to know the historical context of the passage — its political, economic, social, and legal context. Where, oh where are Utah students going to get into the deep history and secular basis of either scripture or of democracy? Certainly not from Utah politicians, or politically motivated curriculum sponsors who care not for the reality of life, but only for the shiny presentation of it. Students need to not only read the constitutional law, but the history of how those laws were developed and applied across the great democracies of the past. The words 'Rome' and 'Athens' are found in the talk surrounding the passage of the bills, but that likely will be the end of it. The bankers and builders of Utah don't care about Rome or Athens, and they don't even know that the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament is a sophisticated civics education text in and of itself, a constitutional history of an ancient democratic republican society. They think it is an encouragement to go to church. Students also need to know what the basic alternative to republican government is — monarchy — what its underlying philosophy is, and how it figures into the past 5,500 years of recorded life on planet earth. Bankers and builders love monarchy, but they prefer to implement it clandestinely rather than openly, so it will never be discussed in the new curriculum. For example, the religious-political philosophy of scripture and of democracy says that all human beings are capable of governing themselves locally by means of elected representatives. They also need to know that monarchy is a system where the blood of a dynasty of rulers is believed to be superior to the blood of common folk, enabling the rich to claim a mandate of heaven to rule forever however they wish to rule. Democracy says everyone has the same blood and the same DNA and everyone has the same capacity to do great things if given the education and the opportunity. Consensual policymaking is of little good without an extremely well-educated citizenry, who bend their discretionary time to life-long learning and regular participation in good citizenship activities. None of that is happening in Utah or any other state of the nation today, so new initiatives such as HB381 and SB334 are destined to be either for show, or to serve as conduits for propaganda efforts by political party leaders.
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Gov. Cox signs 75 bills, vetoes 1 in latest review session
SALT LAKE CITY () — Gov. Cox announced on Monday that he had signed 75 bills — and vetoed one — in the latest legislative review session. After this recent batch of 75 bills, the governor has signed a total of 176 bills. He has 406 bills left to act on before this week's Mar. 27 deadline. If a bill is not acted upon before that deadline, it becomes law without needing the governor's signature. Cox most recently signed bills into law ranging in topics from civic education to medical cannabis regulation and more. Cox also announced that he had vetoed a bill addressing tax rate amendments for education. Here's a breakdown of some of the major bills that were most recently addressed by the governor. On Monday, Cox announced that he vetoed , or 'Minimum Basic Tax Rates Amendments,' which would have changed how property taxes would be used for education. In a letter to Senate President J. Stuart Adams and House Speaker Mike Schultz, Cox explained the reasoning behind his veto of SB 37. 'Moving restricted property tax funding into the general fund creates significant technical and legal questions,' Cox's letter reads. 'For one, it's not entirely clear whether these property tax dollars, once they land in the general fund, still carry the restrictions that have always protected them for education use.' Utah State Auditor Tina Cannon sent a letter to Cox after reviewing SB 37, listing several concerns about the implications of the bill. Cox went on to say in his letter that the bill he vetoed 'sets up a complicated system where school districts have to track these dollars as both incoming and outgoing revenue….' The Utah Education Association, the state's largest teacher's union, issued a statement in support of Cox vetoing SB 37: The Utah Education Association applauds Governor Spencer Cox's decision to veto SB 37. This bill would have redirected public education funds away from Utah's public schools and weakened local control. Utah must preserve education funds for their intended purpose: supporting the success of Utah's public school students.' UEA statement on Cox vetoing SB 37 Gov. Cox signed and , which he called 'two of the most important bills of the 2025 legislative session.' HB 381, 'Civics Education Amendments,' amends the graduation requirements for public high schools in Utah, making it so that students must meet specific social studies requirements and receive 'certain social studies related instruction.' Of this bill, Cox said, 'Foundational civic education in our high schools will aid our students with a better understanding of our government institutions and their critical role in American society.' SB 334, 'Center for Civics Excellence at Utah State,' establishes a Center for Civic Excellence at Utah State University, with Cox saying in a statement that the center 'will be tasked with building out a general education curriculum focused on viewpoint diversity, civil discourse and helping our students develop the analytical skills necessary to contribute in the public square.' HB 381 and SB 334 will go into effect on July 1 and May 7, respectively. On March 23, Cox announced that two bills related to cannabis and cannabinoids had been signed. One bill on alcohol amendments was also signed. The cannabis bills — , 'Cannabinoid Amendments,' and , 'Cannabis Production Amendments' — address medical cannabis regulation and medical cannabis production. The alcohol bill — , 'Alcohol Amendments' — adds provisions relating to banquet licensing for amphitheaters. The amendments define amphitheaters and under which circumstances alcohol would be licensed to be sold there. The full list of bills signed announced by Cox on March 24 can be viewed below: , Voting Precinct Amendments , Child Visitation Amendments H.B. 31, Offender Information Amendments H.B. 34, State Campgrounds Amendments , Correctional Health Amendments H.B. 54, Cannabinoid Amendments H.B. 56, Civil Commitment Modifications , Decommissioned Asset Disposition Amendments H.B. 85, Environmental Permitting Modifications , Water Transfer Amendments H.B. 93, Rehabilitation Services Modifications , Financial Disclosure Revisions , State Land Access Road Amendments H.B. 129, Adoption Records Access Amendments , Adoption Modifications H.B. 146, Mammography Amendments , Health Care Facilities Amendments , Offender Reintegration Amendments , Substance Use Treatment and Enforcement Amendments , Rollback Tax Amendments , Urban Farming Assessment Amendments H.B. 243, Agricultural Water Optimization Amendments , Wildlife Management Area Amendments H.B. 251, Pollinator Program Amendments , Agriculture and Food Amendments H.B. 254, Waste Classification Amendments , Local Land Use Modifications , Water Amendments , Water Infrastructure Modifications , Infectious Disease Procedures Amendments H.B. 302, Minors in State Custody Amendments H.B. 307, Wildfire Funding Amendments , Wildlife Amendments , Watershed Amendments , Medications in Schools Amendments H.B. 342, Animal Composting Amendments , Cannabis Production Amendments , Department of Agriculture and Food Amendments H.B. 347, Medicaid Program Amendments , Geologic Carbon Storage Amendments , Civics Education Amendments , Small School District Scale of Operations Formula , Public Asset Ownership Amendments , Grazing Amendments , Environmental Legal Action Amendments H.B. 439, Outdoor Recreation Revisions H.B. 446, Great Salt Lake Amendments , Brine Mining Amendments H.B. 490, State Parks Modifications , Law Enforcement Salary Amendments H.B. 504, Financial and Conflict of Interest Disclosures by Candidates Amendments , Water Entity Amendments , Diaper Program Amendments , Elected Official Publicity Amendments , Election Fundraising Amendments , Forest Fire Resources Compact Amendments , Water Rights Recording Amendments , Water Quality Board Amendments , State Resource Management Plan Amendments , Statewide Initiatives Amendments , Water Fee Amendments , Traffic Code Amendments S.B. 145, Technical Senate District Boundary Adjustment S.B. 149, Natural Resources Modifications , Sale or Lease of Federally Managed Public Land Amendments , Environmental Quality Modifications , Local Health Department Amendments , Environmental Quality Amendments , Construction Modifications , Severance Amendments S.B. 290, Candidate Licensing Amendments , Special District Modifications , Alcohol Amendments S.B. 334, Center for Civic Excellence at Utah State University , Nonprofit Entities Amendments Lindsay Aerts and Matthew Drachman contributed to this report. 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