Salt Lake Education Association members walk out ‘for’ students

Salt Lake teachers participate in a Walk for Students! at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. The teachers walked from the Wallace F. Bennett lFederal Building to the Capitol to encourage legislators to prioritize public education funding. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

Teachers march on the state Capitol urging higher funding for students, schools

SALT LAKE CITY — Members of the Salt Lake Education Association rallied outside the Wallace F. Bennett Federal Building Friday, which was the starting point of the educators’ Walk for Students.

Dressed in matching red T-shirts, association members carried signs and shouted “6 percent,” a reference to their desire for a 6% increase to the value of the weighted-pupil unit, the basic building block of public education funding in Utah.

An estimated 1,000 marchers — educators, students and friends of education — walked up State Street carrying signs that said ”#start with 6%” and “Put our future first.”

After rallying on the Capitol steps, the marchers entered the Rotunda to join the Utah Education Association’s Education Day of Action events, scheduled throughout the afternoon.

Earlier this month the Legislature’s Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee recommended a 4% increase, but that was before the latest revenue projections that indicated even more robust income tax collections than anticipated. In Utah, income tax revenue is earmarked for education.

UEA officials said one goal of the day’s events was to highlight the association’s proposal for a long-term funding strategy to address the teacher shortage, student equity, student health and safety, and individualized education.

“Full implementation of these goals will require a sustained funding effort over many years,” said UEA President Heidi Matthews.

Lawmakers have expressed lukewarm thoughts toward educators’ demonstrations.

With respect to the walkout by Salt Lake teachers, House Speaker Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville, said: “It’s probably better we sit down and talk through these issues and try to find common ground and focus on doing our work.

”Hopefully we get through today in a productive way, and teachers can go back and do what they do best, which is teach our kids,” he said.

Wilson said he got a text Friday morning from his sister, who is a schoolteacher.

“Her text basically said, ‘Thank you for all the work you and the Legislature have done to increase funding. We have felt it. We’ve seen the additional money in our schools over the last few years, and we appreciate the big investment you’ve made.’”

Wilson said the Utah Legislature has put “a lot of new money” in education over the past five years, including raising property taxes $161 million over the last few years and increasing the weighted-pupil unit 14% in the last five years.

The House GOP caucus decided Thursday to set aside $100 million in a rainy day fund for future education investment as possible economic “storm clouds” roll in on the horizon from uncertainty surrounding coronavirus.

“So we have, I think, been very committed to and will continue to be committed to public education funding,” he said.

“Is it enough? Probably not,” he said. “But have we done everything we can? Absolutely.”

James Tobler, president of the Salt Lake Education Association, called on lawmakers to do more.

“Why are Utah schools the most underfunded schools in the nation? It is unacceptable,” he said.

This story will be updated.

from Deseret News https://ift.tt/39fIdxq