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Show Utah schools face big demand SALT LAKE CITY -"Utah schools are facing tremendous new demands and Governor Scott Matheson's discouraging words about funding cast serious questions about the state's future," a Utah Education Association official said recently. UEA Acting Executive Director Don Ulmer said that when the governor raised the possibility of no cost-of-living increases in-creases for teachers next year, it could hurt or wreck efforts to meet coming requirements of colleges in the state. "Higher education is demanding more foreign language, English, math, science and other classes for high school students," Ulmer said. "That's fine, but there's a big problem," he said. "We have a nation-wide shortage of teachers in some of those -subjects. On top of that, -fewer an,d fewerstudents are preparing in college to become teachers." One reason for that is teacher pay, Ulmer said. "More and more women students now find they can move into higher-paying careers in law, medicine, engineering and other fields that once were considered by many to be i exclusively the male domain," he continued. "Many teachers skilled in math and science have been pirated away from the schools by private business and industry," he continued. "This brain drain simply can't continue if we expect to have solid school programs for Utah's rapidly growing population of young people," Ulmer said. "The UEA wants Utah students to have every opportunity, and damaging the schools definitely closes off avenues of opportunity to the young people of this state." |