[UAGCNews] FW: Lawmakers reconsider comments about International Baccalaureate programs

[T Lane]

http://www.sltrib.com//ci_8399224
<http://www.sltrib.com/ci_8399224?IADID=Search-www.sltrib.com-www
.sltrib.com> 

 

Lawmakers reconsider comments about International Baccalaureate
programs

 
<mailto:lschencker at sltrib.com?subject=Salt%20Lake%20Tribune:%20La
wmakers%20reconsider%20comments%20about%20International%20Baccala
ureate%20programs> By Lisa Schencker
The Salt Lake Tribune


Article Last Updated: 02/28/2008 08:08:47 PM MST


Posted: 8:09 PM- One senator has apologized "for not being more
appropriate" when she characterized International Baccalaureate
programs as "anti-American," and another who joined her in
opposing funding for the college-prep courses said Thursday he
changed his mind after visiting a classroom. 
    Republican Sens. Margaret Dayton and Darin Peterson's
comments came around the same time the Legislature's main budget
committee voted to fund IB programs in Utah after all. 
    HB266, which requested money to help fund IB, appeared dead
after Dayton, Peterson and Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper,
killed it in a Senate committee last week. But ultimately,
lawmakers have included $100,000 for the bill sponsored by Rep.
Carol Spackman Moss, D-Holladay, on their short list of education
programs to fund this year. Moss had requested $300,000 but said
Thursday she's happy to get any funding considering dozens of
other school programs will get nothing. 
    Although HB266 passed the House unanimously earlier this
month, it ran into trouble when Dayton, R-Orem, said she was
"opposed to the anti-American philosophy that's somehow woven
into all the classes as they promote the U.N. agenda," then voted
with Peterson and Stephenson to kill the bill. 
    Since then, current and former IB students and their parents
have deluged Dayton and other lawmakers with e-mails asking them
to reconsider. 

    IB students from Syracuse Junior High School also visited the
Capitol and Moss has worked behind the scenes to resuscitate her
proposal. 
    "I talked to wiser, more reasonable people . . . who realized
it would be an embarrassment to our state if that story went
national," she said. "The public outcry was so big." 
    Moss said the public outrage may even have helped to
ultimately fund her bill. 
    "It's an extraordinary program," Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said
Thursday of IB, in which his own son is enrolled. "We need more
of them, not fewer." 
    Dayton acknowledged Thursday that the program "does a lot of
good things in Utah." She said she was concerned about "what
happened in other states that had trouble with it" and worried
about making sure entities outside Utah weren't controlling
education. 
    She also sent an e-mail reply to those who had e-mailed her
about her comments. 
    "I apologize for not being more appropriate in my comments in
committee," Dayton wrote. "It was my understanding that members
of the public were planning to express concerns about the IB
program. When they did not present in committee, I felt a need to
reflect their concerns." 
    Peterson, R-Nephi, who also voted against the program in
committee, said he visited an IB classroom at Salt Lake City's
West High School this week and it led him to reconsider his
stance. 
    "If all our local programs are like this West High program,
they're actually a very good thing," he said. "They've changed my
mind at least about our state's IB."


 


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