20060412 Margaret Dayton

4/19/2006 12:36:24 PM Introductions Margaret Dayton “I am glad to be here. Today is farm day and so I apologize for not being dressed in a skirt. But I love being outdoor and my husband is a farmer and we both enjoy the outdoors. I was with the 2nd graders today talking to them.
Several years ago as the women’s movement got exciting many were voicing their opinions, but they didn’t speak for me. I have a real family and have wanted to weigh my votes heavily towards the family. I am sad when we remove the choice for family’s to keep one of the parents at home.
I am also concerned about property rights and how they influence family’s.
Many of you associate my name with NCLB. I brought it with me, these hundreds of pages of regulations. There is a five binder set that is a couple of feet tall of paper explaining how the law applies. I am concerned that the law states that the accountability should be to government and not the parents. I chose to promote the idea that we would focus on Utah’s concerns and responses to NCLB. Utah was being ridiculed for going against the flow and this has been all consuming with Press and National Legislators now wanting to copy us. They are in resistance to NCLB.
What is a large concern is that DOE is trying to expand it even further. Requiring that more women write textbooks etc. There is a section in Congressional News by Rep Rob Bishop and I that is trying to get the DOE Secretary to be the superintendent of all schools.
Please turn to page 45 in “”Getting America Right”” by Feulner. As MD stated “”it is not appropriate that 6% financing gets 100% control of schools curriculum.”” We still get calls from all over the nation asking how to resist this control. Everybody wants good education but the answer is not a one-size-fits all plan. We would have to eliminate our school boards and rewrite our constitution as a State. The stated goal is that by 2014 ALL children will be proficient in Math etc. I know that this deals a very negative blow to all educators. I will continue to fight for this.”
4/19/2006 12:36:29 PM Question What is your position on school vouchers?
5/15/2008 11:26:05 AM Answer Margaret Dayton “I have always supported them. The bills on school choice can not advance until they make it through the committee that I am in charge of. The bills are heard and I get them out on the floor, but then they meet the real harsh debate. I need to say, for those who don’t agree with me, that as I read the Republican platform vouchers are what I see in the platform. “”We believe that children should have access to quality education .. And we support the right of creating competitive advantage in the schools.””
This year we tried to get the money out of the General fund but we will keep working on this.”
4/12/2006 7:23:25 PM Question It is hard for me to understand it coming out of the General fund.
4/12/2006 7:23:39 PM Answer Margaret Dayton We still have to create the perfect bill, but we have to start somewhere.
4/12/2006 7:23:54 PM Question What is the perfect bill?
4/12/2006 7:24:14 PM Answer Margaret Dayton I don’t know. I don’t think sliding scales is a good bill. I really don’t know and don’t have a clear view of what it would be. I think we just need to look at all the choices.
4/12/2006 7:24:46 PM Question As the chair of the committee, can’t you propose answers?
4/12/2006 7:25:05 PM Answer Margaret Dayton Others usually have a different approach and so others have asked that I try and be neutral on the issues and therefore not put forward the bills. I can also do the NCLB focus in the mean time. This helps to generate more support for more bills.
4/12/2006 7:25:53 PM Question The easiest way is to not accept the money.
4/12/2006 7:26:04 PM Answer Margaret Dayton That was my first bill. 44 million being turned down is big, but only 6%. I got it through the House completely and almost the Senate. Last year we softened the bill to be we would take the money and not put it toward Utah goals. We got Eagle Forum and UEA behind it. We got it through completely and now others are saying that we should let go of the money now.
4/12/2006 7:27:49 PM Question Can you do it?
4/12/2006 7:28:09 PM Answer Margaret Dayton Yes. There are a couple of states that have school districts on their level who have dropped the money. But there hasn’t been a whole state. The School Boards are willing to resist and are now finding out how expensive it is and they are ready to let it go. Jordan School district shows that 5 million comes from the government so that he can spend 180 million. Even if he is 100 million off it shouldn’t cost him soooo much. The longer we live with it, the harder the requirements become.
4/12/2006 7:30:13 PM Question Where is the 44 million?
4/12/2006 7:30:22 PM Answer Margaret Dayton It comes every year and is based on the Special Education money originally from the national level to try and help out. They fund this through Title 1 for free and reduced lunch programs. So the state would have to back fill if we turned the money off. Connecticut is suing the federal government about the unfunded mandate issue.
4/12/2006 7:31:54 PM Question I know that our Junior High has struggled. Orem Junior has a large immigrant population because half don’t speak english. They also have a lot of special ed students. They have seen the problem during the first year how hard this is hitting them.
4/12/2006 7:32:46 PM Answer Margaret Dayton “The IDEA which states that you can only test special education students at their level. NCLB states that you will test every child at their grade level regardless. No one in DC has actually read the whole bill. When I took them through the process of comparing the 2 laws and they said, “”right.”” And their answer was “”we’re working on that.””
In our law we said that we just won’t deal with.”
4/12/2006 7:34:52 PM Question I don’t like having the federal control but local control.
4/12/2006 7:35:04 PM Answer Margaret Dayton It is only on reading and math testing for this federal nandate. So now we are losing the joy of learning and the other areas.
4/12/2006 7:35:39 PM Question What about accountability? Teachers who have been sitting on their hands are finally starting to work according to my brother at Mountain View HS.
4/12/2006 7:36:36 PM Answer Margaret Dayton There does need to be accountability and I believe that needs to happen on the local level. Sen Howard Stephenson wrote a bill that stated that you could lete go of a bad teacher without having to rehab them. Those teacher contracts are written by the local boards. The legislature does not write pay, contracts or other things. I hope that people will talk to their school boards. Jodi Sundberg is running unopposed. I would never run for it. These locally elected board members who have open meetings.
4/12/2006 7:41:29 PM Question One of the reasons I support vouchers is that if the money is earmarked for this then it would improve teaching.
4/12/2006 7:43:19 PM Question “Emilia Earhart has a great school with good parents and other wonderful things. But they “”failed”” because of 2 special education students. You really don’t know what schools are like until you spend the time with them. Your friends, Margaret, are against the bond. We can’t get the money and we in Provo are at the bottom. I teach 6th grade and we are so unfamiliar with what is happening.”
4/12/2006 7:45:14 PM Answer Margaret Dayton I served as a volunteer for 15 years.
4/12/2006 7:45:56 PM Question The last meeting that I was in they were talking about instate tuition for illegal aliens. You stated that they could not become citizens as a concern because they accepted the money. I am concerned about giving them the money for being illegal.
4/12/2006 7:46:43 PM Answer Margaret Dayton “I am glad that you asked the question. I do not support illegal anything. I do not agree with granting waivers or any other incentives. I have members of my family who are immigrating legally right now. If we aren’t being fair, then we must change. We must follow the rule of law. I have taken a lot of heat for being at the forefront of the fight to get rid of those waivers because we don’t do it for citizens. If foreign students come who are legal don’t get waivers.
The law is currently being interpreted as those kids who are here illegally because their parents brought them should be given a waiver. There are kids I know who grew up here and is now off in Iraq and they don’t get the waiver because they are not residents.”
4/12/2006 7:50:00 PM Question What are the chances of fixing that.
4/12/2006 7:50:09 PM Answer Margaret Dayton It comes up every year and makes it out of my committee. I can’t get it passed on the floor. There are ways to come in the country legally and we want to follow that pattern. Our chinese daughter-in-law is following the rules.
4/12/2006 7:50:57 PM Question Why should we vote out Parley Hellewell and vote for you?
4/12/2006 7:51:09 PM Answer Margaret Dayton “He is nice. He has already checked himself out before. He ran for governor and was unsuccessful. This year he said he was leaving because of home, work and other reasons. He then endorsed me.
He has changed his mind and I am not going to change my mind.
We have similar votes. If you are in and out of the race a number of times, then I don’t understand that. I only run a few bills and then I focus on them.”
4/12/2006 7:52:42 PM Question I have heard that you are a one issue woman. What would you say?
4/12/2006 7:52:54 PM Answer Margaret Dayton “Out of my 10 years I have spent 2 years on NCLB. I was given the chairmanship because I was willing to take the heat. Yes my name is associated with NCLB. I am a national figure for it now because we made a big issue out of it. But that is only because of the coverage.
I am the only legislator there who has eliminated a specific tax. I eliminated the tax on being in a bed in the hospital. I started with that, “”the sick tax.”” I pushed for it and finally got it through my second year.
I have support from industry and the farm bureau. None of the other issues I have worked on has gotten so much publicity as NCLB. I have continued to work on other issues as well. I get the friends of tax payers award and will continue to work in the areas of outdoors and water issues and recreation.
I am not a single issue person.”
4/12/2006 7:55:40 PM Question It sounds like you are a mover and shaker and have moved more than Mr. Hellewell
4/12/2006 7:55:58 PM Answer Margaret Dayton Thank you
4/12/2006 7:56:03 PM Answer Mr. Dayton She is a detailed person and is a worker and accepts the work.
4/12/2006 7:56:21 PM Answer Margaret Dayton “He does a lot of work for me and I thank him. I grew up in a military family. My dad was in Korea and I missed him. It was ‘forever’ until he came home. I had friends who later protested Vietnam. And my dad was there again for 1 year.
I believe that we fight for liberty and someone like me can run for a position. Your involvement validates that ultimate price that you pay for being here and they paid for with their lives.
Thank you.”