By Christopher Smart| The Salt Lake $110 M,total cost with interest on play house will be closer to $187 million. It’s not exactly a gamble. Call it a calculated risk. The unveiling of the design for the proposed Utah Performing Arts Center is a month or two away , with construction to begin in January 2014. But Tuesday , the Salt Lake City Council was still working to fine-tune financing for the $1 10 million … Continue reading
Upgrading schools for a digital world by John Florez If 65 percent of children entering school this fall may end up in careers that haven’t been invented, why do lawmakers think evaluating teachers annually will improve education? According to a MacArthur Foundation study, 65 percent of students in today’s classrooms will be doing jobs that have not yet been created. So why do lawmakers want to evaluate teachers based on a system that is teaching … Continue reading
Treat Teachers As Professionals By John Florez If private employers treated their employees like Utah lawmakers treat their teachers, they would be out of business and cited for violating labor laws. Yet, we see legislators continue to blame teachers for our failing schools. They keep trying to pass laws on how to fire poor performing teachers, demand more accountability, add more needless regulations and even try to dismantle education with a thousand cuts. Such actions … Continue reading
School Board Should Retool Education For The New Economy by John Florez, Deseret News Andy Grove, former chairman of Intel, once said, “If you are not paranoid, you are out of business.” So it may be with the state school board. American businesses have taken Grove’s advice and retooled themselves for today’s economy. Utah’s state school board members would do our state well to do the same. In 2001, the Utah State Office of Education … Continue reading
Education System Needs Big Medicine by John Florez, Deseret News As my late friend, Judge Frank Wilkins used to say, “That calls for big medicine.” And that’s what public education needs today. It is one of the most important institutions needed to compete in the global economy; yet, we have failed to support our elected leaders in making the necessary changes for our students to succeed in the world marketplace. Today, we are living in … Continue reading