UT Republicans say Money for Roads Before Education

In the Trib article "Transportation Tops GOP Priorities," legislators have explicitly stated that they want Utah's budget surplus to be spent on transportation projects first:

House Republicans have placed transportation at the front of the line for this year's hefty budget surplus - ahead of education and staff salaries.
And at a caucus meeting Thursday, their lead budget architect, Rep. Ron Bigelow, R-West Valley City, cautioned lawmakers to scrutinize every spending proposal not related to road construction.
"This is going to be a transportation year," Rep. Brad Dee, R-Washington Terrace, told the caucus.

Utah has the lowest per-student spending on kindergarten to Grade 12 education among the 50 states. The state also is facing an increase of more than 100,000 students over the next decade.
[Utah Education Association President Pat] Rusk points to numerous opinion polls, including a recent Tribune survey, that show taxpayers want most of the surplus to go to education, not transportation. In the Tribune survey, transportation came in fourth.

Whose priorities are out of line with their constituents? Rural Utahns don't need more roads - our transportation needs are covered. We do, however, need more teachers, higher pay for the teachers we have, and discretionary funds for district-specific projects (like, for instance, supplemental lunch program funds).

Will Huntsman stick to his pledge to allocate funds to teachers?

Utah's New Governor Proposes More Money for Teachers; However....

From the Salt Lake Tribune today:

Along with tax and ethics reform, Huntsman said he will commit more money for teacher salaries, classroom supplies and new math and reading comprehension programs. His budget proposes $15 million for beginning teachers, $71 million to cover a 4.5 percent increase in the Weighted Pupil Unit and $5.5 million for supplies, which equals about $300 per classroom. His math initiative will cost $14 million. He urged Utahns to volunteer in classrooms, changing the teacher-student ratio to an "adult to student" ratio.

Sounds great. I'm really curious to see how this gets paid for, particularly if he is able to eliminate corporate taxes in Utah:

The governor said he will ask lawmakers to begin phasing out corporate income taxes this year, balanced with a streamlined sales tax to fill in revenue holes.

Systemic solutions to the obesity epidemic

"Fixing a Fat Nation" by Tom Farley and Deborah Cohen is the best analysis and set of solutions I've seen yet regarding our national eating disorder. It's now about four years old but just if not more relevant now as when it was published.

Highly recommended.

Desert Church

Well a few of us who've fallen from grace decided to get to church last week - our own version thereof. And while there are a few logistical kinks to work out (where was the storytime for children??), and the tone was not all that even, the sense of fellowship shone true. A featured reading was Mark Morford's Resolutions for the Damned, and Thatcher spoke to the diminished nature of Christianity in the modern world. All in all an entertaining and thought-provoking morning.

We agreed to add time for "My Story" in the future, where one attendee speaks for a few minutes about their own belief systems - where they came from, how it's evolved. Young Dash's My Story contribution led to lengthy discussion last week, and I anticipate such will be the case in at future services.

Always, suggestions for future services (themes, additional components) are welcome! See you there next time.

Destination Resort at the Lion's Back?

Apparently two individuals have contracted with SITLA to lease the Lion's Back Campground (80 acres) and have an additional adjacent 100 acres optioned for the development of what would seem to be a fairly large-scale destination resort.

Included in the tentative proposal are 150 individual units (whether this means 150 distinct buildings or fifty 3-bedroom units or some other manifestation is unclear) on the Lion's Back parcel, but it's also not clear if they are part of a hotel, or are to be sold individually, in which case the County regulations permit nightly rentals.

20 Single-family lots are proposed for the adjacent parcel.

None of this has been discussed by the county planning and zoning commission; I anticipate that there will indeed be some dialogue about this at the upcoming meeting (Wednesday 1/12, 6PM).

Does this seem familiar to anyone?

No Roots, No Shoots

This is excellent article on the evolving state of school lunches (thanks Sonya!):

Ann Cooper, a chef and author who works as a consultant to help districts revamp their school lunches, says it’s time to put nutrition education on par with other academic subjects.

Cooper, who calls herself a renegade lunch lady, says healthy diets are just as important as good instruction. You wouldn’t let a 12-year-old decide that he doesn’t need to take math and English, she says. Nor should you allow the same child to decide he won’t eat any vegetables.

“If you are dying of a food-related disease,” Cooper says, “geometry means nothing.”

Grand County is ready for better school lunches. We simply need to demand it, both as a moral and fiscal priority.

I've heard the argument that kids who aren't getting healthy meals at home won't eat "home-cooked" meals at school, and I don't buy it. They are the ones who need it the most, and if some parents don't have the wherewithal or desire to feed their kids well, then we as a community must take on that responsibility. It's in our own best interests.

To me, it's as basic as having clean air to breathe, or a dry, secure place to sleep - a couple of days in smoggy air, or a few nights of damp and cold won't kill you, but a lifetime (or childhood) of them will absolutely take their toll.

Place-Based Food, In Iowa no less

Heard it on NPR this morning:

With some of the most productive farmland in the world, Iowa is an agricultural powerhouse known for its corn, soybeans, cattle and hogs.

But an Iowa research center says some farmers here and elsewhere should consider moving away from commodity crops to what's being called "place-based" foods.

Place-based, ecoregional eating, community food systems - these are all shades of a unifying principle: eating food that comes from close to home is better for your health, better for your area economy, better for your sense of well-being, and better for the planet.