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Show L J Has Utah education really improved? ByCHERIEHUBER Clipper Correspondent When Gov. Norman Bangerter gave his talk earlier this month on the State of Utah's progress, he said he felt education in Utah had made some improvements in the last several years. Do the people feel the s?Vay? Little said he felt there were still some problems that need to be addressed. "Basically, I only know Ohat the media tells me," he said. In terms of my own observation, nothing seems to have changed ex- the last few years. I think that's good but I would like to see more diversity." Shawn Sunyich thought the education edu-cation system is doing a good job, at least for the lower grades. He said, "I think the schools are doing a pretty good job lately. It does seem that all the efforts are being poured into the elementary levels. The younger kids seem to be getting all the computer training and so forth. I think more money needs to be spent on getting high school students ready for the real world. They're the ones who really need the help. ' proven to be effective despite what they say about it. Angela Myers likes the year-round year-round schools. "Now that more and more schools are on a year-round schedule, it appears that it is a good idea because it evens things out for the kids during the year and they are in a position to learn more," she said. "But new policies on special education and resource are not good at all. The push now is to mainstream every child into a regular class. That's not good for everyone and some kids are ending up in institutions." Doug Rosenlof also felt there ft " j i t V 1 i J J i V i CAROL MEHRING DOUG ROSENLOF f f V t r - -Tift1 h f ; - - - r 1 were some positive changes. "The new block system and the hour and a half classes are pretty good," he said. "Still, classes are too crowded. crowd-ed. The system still needs more teachers and fewer students per class. Some of the recent changes in attendance rules for high schools do make things better because they force attendance by the students. Kids tell me they go to school because they don't want to pay the fines. The work release programs are also good because they allow for job experience while the student is still in school. There is also a lot more diversity of subjects taught in cept more money has been thrown at the problem. As a former teacher, I feel there are two major problems that have not been addressed. First, teachers should have control of discipline in their own classrooms. Second, teachers should have the determining voice in the budget of where school money is to be spent for classroom use. This would not necessarily be solved through on-site on-site management, though this could address the problem." Carol Mehring said, ' 'i think education ed-ucation in Utah still has a long way to go and a lottery is not the answer. The lottery program has never been SHAWN SUNYICH ANGELA MYERS ED LITTLE |