Two thoughts: 1-I agree that we have allowed the notion of "free 'education'" to grow way beyond 'education' to now include a LOT of extras including recreation, entertainment, childcare, etc. 2-I'm not entirely sure that the the education has to be "free". The State constitution mandates that all children have access to the schools and that the schools be free of religious control. Does that mean the schools can't charge a head tax (by whatever name including book/lab/activity fees)? I'm not sure. I want every child to get a solid, basic education. But we clearly need parents to accept more responsibility than they currently do. Article 3 Section 4 [Free, nonsectarian schools.] Fourth: -- The Legislative shall make laws for the establishment and maintenance of a system of public schools, which shall be open to all the children of the State and be free from sectarian control. .

Utah State constitution Art III, Sec 4 requires the State to run an education system. Furthermore, this portion of our Constitution cannot be amended without approval from Congress (or the SCOTUS ruling that such limits are a violation of the federal constitution.) This requirement was put into our State constitution as a condition of Statehood with the express purpose of undermining the authority of the LDS Church. And while I happen to think that private schools, with either voluntary or even government support to help the truly poor would do a far better job than our current system, I think it is clear that the nearly universal desire to get something for nothing means that we are never going to move in that direction. PARENTS want the childless (and businesses) to pay a big chunk of education. The west side wants the east side to pay for education. And there are those who want a lottery to fund education rather than taxes. Everyone wants something for nothing.

Very well put.

Rules tend to hog tie good administrators far more than they protect against bad administrators. I've seen good teachers run off by bad administrators despite all the rules. The solution is to get rid of bad administrators not to create rules meant to prevent them from doing too much damage. Tenure makes sense in a research college environment where we expect professors to be doing research and publishing on controversial subjects. I don't want anything controversial coming from K-12 teachers. No need for tenure.

Bear in mind that property taxes (business or otherwise) only account for about 27% of funding in Utah schools. And I believe that property taxes can be used only for buildings or other capital (and temporarily for salaries under the bill this year). The problem is that school districts have started building veritable palaces for schools. My high school did not even have its own football stadium, just a practice field. For decades our games used other community resources rather than having its own football stadium. Now, it seems every single high school has a huge football stadium, plus a massive and high tech auditorium, plus plus plus. And don't even get me started on district offices. It is time to cut back on needlessly expensive construction costs.

Here is another perspective. Prior to FDIC insurance guaranteeing such a high amount, depositors who had hundreds of thousands of dollars to put into a bank took it upon themselves to personally check out the financial health of that bank. Now that their money is guaranteed by the feds, all they care about is which bank offers the highest interest rate, never mind if the bank is stable or not. Federal insurance does offer some protections. But it has also created some problems. There is no such thing as a free lunch.