Candidate Spotlight

Linnea Barney

Linnea Smith Barney was born in Snowflake, Arizona and was delivered by her grandmother, a midwife. She grew up mostly in Arizona and Colorado and first came to Utah to be a BYU student. She met Ralph Barney there, and they were married shortly after she graduated in Nursing. As a young couple with small children they lived in Iowa, Hawaii, and Missouri. After Ralph finished his PhD they returned to Utah in 1971 and have lived in their home on Main Street in Orem since then. Their seven children have all graduated from Orem high schools.
 
In 1980-81 they took their four youngest children to the Fiji Islands, where Ralph was a Fulbright professor at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, There they learned to appreciate the public schools and the medical care in the US. Again in 1987-88 they took their three youngest children to Beijing, China, this time sent as an exchange expert in editing English language publications for the Ministry of Culture's Foreign Languages Press. Linnea taught English and the History of Western Civilization to students in the Ministry of Culture Institute, young adults who were preparing for jobs in tourism. In China they learned to appreciate the schools and the medical care of both the Fiji Islands and the US.

Deseret News, October 1, 2010
Steve Baugh

A few weeks into the school year and parents are again painfully reminded that Utah spends far less than other states on educating our children. A visit to the typical Utah classroom drives home that point. In Utah, spending on the average child is about $3000 less than what that child would receive in another state. We hear that Utah has the lowest per pupil spending, but what does that really mean for our children's education?

The student-teacher ratio in Utah elementary schools is more than double what it is in many other states. That means each Utah child has to share his or her teacher's attention with over twice as many other students as would be the case for that child in some other state! Many studies have shown that smaller class sizes can be more effective for learning, permit teachers to get to know individual students better, and contribute to fewer discipline problems in schools.

The problem isn't just what happens in the classroom. It affects a child's overall school experience. For example, Utah's guidance counselors are responsible for over four times the number of students as the national average for such counselors. That means each student gets less time with a guidance counselor helping them with their academics and their future plans. Those of us who have been parents of high school students know how harried those school counselors are when they have so many students to assist.

Candidate Spotllight

Deon Turley

Deon Turley stepped forward in 2008 to run for the State Legislature.  The campaign provided an excellent learning experience.  Shortly after the election, she was asked to fill the position of secretary to the Utah County Democratic Party and was officially elected to that position in the spring of 2009.  She relinquished this position a year later when she decided to mount a second campaign for the State Legislature.

Deon Turley is a Provo wife and mother of seven children. She has been an active volunteer in many organizations, mostly dealing with children and education. She served as Family Life Commissioner for the Utah State PTA. The term of this office just ended in June of this year. She continues to serve as Legislative Vice President in the Provo Council PTA, a position she was elected to following her term as Provo Council President. She also has served as secretary to the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, which is a non-profit organization serving colleges and universities in Utah, and volunteers occasionally with that organization.

Candidate Spotlight

Jim Greer

James “Jim” Greer and his wife have been residents of House District 59 in Orem for twenty years. Their four daughters attended public schools here in Orem, including Mountain View High School where his wife, Dr. Mary Ruth Jaeger Greer currently teaches AP Statistics, Biology, and Biotechnology.

As the spouse of a public educator, Jim has seen firsthand the challenges of adapting to the fluctuating financial support of the Legislature. He is committed to restoring funding to public education that has been siphoned from the state budget under the guise of tax breaks for big business and the wealthy. Jim will work toward establishing an educational endowment to augment annual state budgets and provide continuous funding to our public schools, regardless of national or local economic fluctuations.

We've all heard the news reports about how the governor meets with various corporations and groups, receives campaign donations from them (often in the tens of thousands of dollars), and then they get awarded some government contract.  The governor claims there is no hanky-panky going on.

I'd like to believe him.  But I don't.  

Unfortunately, the problem is wider than Governor Herbert.  Here are just a couple other examples:

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, during the voucher fight Senate Republican leaders, particularly Curt Bramble, threatened lobbyists they wouldn't get their legislation passed that year if they didn't contribute to the anti-voucher campaign.  

Republican governors have a practice of holding a fundraiser for their campaigns right before the beginning of a legislative session.  Just as governors and legislators are considering legislation affecting businesses and various interests, these business representatives are expected to give to the governor's re-election campaign.