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Show 5 OPINION Teacher background checks long overdue Tuesday, November 3 ; 2009 www.dailyutahchronicle.com t took 15 years for state officials to get a snapshot of the criminal backgrounds for the state's 22,000 licensed public school teachers and more than 112,000 employees. Now they say clearing up that blurred picture is going to take a lot of time, and they hope it doesn't end up creating a false sense of security. Carol Lear, executive secretary for the Utah Professional Practices Advisory Commission, which deals with licensing, regulating and investigating teacher misconduct, said Utah Code 53A-3-4io(4>(ii) required background checks of all licensed teachers beginning in 1994 and all school employees in 1999. At that time, Lear said, the state chose to implement fingerprinting for background checks on every new license applicant. Existing teachers would only be required to have a background check done if a reasonable cause warranted it. Lear said it was generally agreed that a sudden requirement for everyone in public education to get a background check would break the system. That sounds reasonable. The state wanted to take it slow, create a plan and implement it step by step. But at some point, it should have addressed the existing teachers and employees. The whole purpose of the law was to establish an informed education system and eliminate the hidden criminal pasts of the people working with our children^ It never happened. Finally, in April, a performance audit conducted by the Office of the Legislative Auditor General enlightened legislators that "the cun-ent system for detecting and identifying the criminal histories of individuals employed in public schools is flawed and ineffective." The audit found criminal convictions of teachers and employees from before and after they were hired. Apparently, the Department Jof Education was supposed to maintain a file of fingerprints .(rntaafc(w.QuWtnptify t n e Uta J* Safety Office of Education of any new matters involving alleged sexual offense, felony or class A misdemeanor drug offenses against the person. Lear said that's what the Board of Education thought it was doing when it sent fingerprints to the Bureau of Criminal Identification for new licensees. It assumed the prints were kept and ran periodically, only to find out 15 years later that they I ALICIA WILLIAMS Senior, Mass Communication and English never had been. The audit also prompted legislators to strengthen the code by requiring individuals who were hired prior to 1994 to have background checks. Amazingly, itfinallyhappened, and it didn't break the system. The Board of Education gave the BCI its database of names, birth dates and Social Security numbers of all the licensed teachers in Utah. School districts turned over the same information for non-licensed employees. The BCI took the database of names and cross-referenced them against any arrests in Utah as far back as the 1960s. Then, a few weeks ago, BCI turned over what basically amounts to a list of hits on criminal arrests, charges or convictions. There were more than 500 hits on licensed teachers and nearly 6,800 hits on employees. "Of course, that doesn't mean there axe 500 people with serious problems who are licensed teachers and currently teaching," Lear said. "What it means is that a lot of those people are people we've already known about and dealt with. There were people whose licenses were already suspended or revoked and some that were just flat out mistakes." Basically, it's a whole lot of hoopla about nothing. So far, Utah school districts have reported firing only nine of their 112,000 employees, and the UPPAC is still trying to construct a plan on how to best handle the hits narrowed down to the 30 to 50 licensed individuals. Because it was only a name check, Lear said its accuracy will have to be verified by a fingerprint check- She said the process will take months to sort out. Although it's important to have the background information of public education employees, she said the public should remember it only shows what people are arrested and convicted for. "Having that background check doesn't guarantee that people will behave appropriately after they get into their profession," Lear said. "It only says what people have done, but I guess no one speeds if they've never gotten a speeding ticket." Although she said people, com- munity members and parents have | the right to know, Lear said she hopes society doesn't fall into a false sense of security with back- I ground checks. She said none of the! notorious teacher or employees ac- ] cused or convicted of sexual crimes; against Utah students during the ; past two years had anything on their background checks. None of this takes away from the ridiculous fact that it took the state 15 years to figure out it wasn't following its own law. It might be a false sense of security for us to expect the state of Utah to provide our children with educators, aides, cafeteria workers, bus drivers and janitors who are free of accused or convicted criminal pasts. However, I'll sleep a whole lot easier knowing it's only their future actions we need to worry about. Their pasts can now be put to rest. letters@chronicle.utah.edu to uc*u«4 Political science needs funds Legislature should look Senator's bill would cut important research money at climate change facts P W hen we were in elementary school, we were taught countless scientific "theories." The JONATHAN tb Ajry of plate tectonics. DEESINC The theory of evolution. The theory of the Big Bang. Senior, International Studies Although these ideas are presented as theories, they are accepted by enough of ers managed to find Roy Spenthe scientific community to be • cer, a research scientist at the presented in textbooks, referUniversity of Alabama, who enced in journals and generally is foremost among deniers of understood to be facts. man-made climate change. Therefore, in many cases, Spencer vehemently rejects those who refute these theothe idea that humans affect cliries generally have an agenda mate change and on his webapart from science. Evolusite, www.drroyspencer.com, tion deniers are commonly said climatologists in favor of religious groups, because the the theory are only promulgattheory conflicts with creing it for government funding. ationisnx Furthermore, many Meanwhile, much of Spencer's religious groups disagree with funding came directly from the Big Bang theory, as it can ExxonMobil, which stands to be interpreted to conflict with gain quite a bit if humans don't the book of Genesis in the limit their fossil fuel consumpBible. Ironically, this theory tion. can also complement the Old In January, Eos, the weekly Testament. newspaper of the American Regardless, when a scientific Geophysical Union, released a theory holds consensus among study documenting opinions on climate change from the the vast majority of the scigeneral public to climatoloentific community, making or gists who are active publisheven considering policy to the ers on climate change. The . contrary is ill-recommended. study found that percentages Last week, the Utah State increased dramatically with Legislature heard testimonies each level of education on from both sides of the climate the topic—974 percent of the change debate so it could conmost educated agreed with tinue to sit on the fence about this theory. the issue. This time, lawmak- Tim Garrett, a professor in the U's department of atmospheric sciences, said, "I can't quite understand where he's coming from." His co-researcher Jim Steenburgh, professor and chairman of the department of meteorology at the U, appeared as a legislative witness last week to present the 2007findingsto former Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. by a committee of meteorologists from the U, Utah State andBYU. "Scientific support for human-induced climate change is extremely strong for a wide variety of reasons," Garrett said. Utahns know full well the difference between natural and man-made effects on the environment. The inversion we face nearly every year, a natural occurrence in valleys, is not necessarily bad until we fill the valley with pollutants from our cars and other sources. The Legislature obviously feels that we are paying it to go out of its way to not make decisions. Apparently, a 97.4 percent consensus among experts is not enough to make legislation on climate change and we need to hear the opinions of every Exxon-funded fanatic in order to maintain the status quo. Yet another victory for post-Huntsman Utah. letters@chronicleMtah.edu olitical science is an important study of our political culture and climate in America. The research the discipline produces is relevant and necessary to bring the human element into government. In opposition to this, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, has proposed prohibiting the National Science Foundation from "wasting any federal research funding on political science projects." This seems not only reckless, but also dangerous. "This is a more pointed amendment than you typically have," said Matthew Burbank, a professor of political science at the U. "In the amendment, Coburn takes issue with political science research itself, and that is unusual." According to Burbank, the federal government has to have priorities when it comes to research funding. The wording in this amendment is more a show of Coburn's belief and dislike for the social science field than as a priority-setting measure. The larger concern is that Coburn is sending a message that the only "real" research takes place in biology and medicine. What Coburn is missing is the human element that is a must in the political ; arena. This debate is taking place as the Senate gets ready to vote on the spending bill for federal science funding, which includes the NSF. Coburn has introduced an amendment that would stop the science agency from funding political science projects, arguing that the money would be better spent on "real" science. The cost to fund political science research is not even a drop in the bucket compared to Coburn's so-called real science research. How this could affect the political sci- TlNA PARSONS* Freshman, Social Work and Sociology ence department at the U remains to be seen. This major is usually a spring board for students going into otherfields.Many within the political science department go into careers in law, social work and various humanities areas. What is certain is that without political science research funding, thefieldwill ultimately suffer. During the past 10 years, $112 million dollars has been allotted by NSF for research projects. That is a small price to pay when discovering the impact legislation has on people. . Priorities do need to be set, but cutting ; funding to the political science field is not; the place to start, nor does it significantly decrease the spending of our federal government. Coburn's efforts to have his bills passed this year have been, for the most, part, unsuccessful. According to Matt . Blackwell, a graduate student at Harvard University, the chance of this bill passing is slight, so political scientists have little to fear. Americans need political scientists and the research they produce to keep them in touch with what is happening in our government. Trying to take away their funding will not silence the message. Still, it is unnerving that the thought has even been raised. letters@chronicle.utah.edii |