First, the bill itself. Basically it would allow state school boards to determine the terms and conditions surrounding teachers employment and termination while overturning the Utah Orderly School Termination Procedures Act. Now I will fully admit that I have not read this act so I don’t know if this is something worth keeping; what I do know is that I am in favor of merrit pay and holding teachers to the same standards as other public jobs wherein you have to perform.

But herein lies the problem. I do not trust Representative Wimmer’s intentions. I suspect that this bill was written as a sort of union busting bill that goes out of its way to harm the UEA. This is simply unacceptable as the Utah Education Association seems to be the only organization that actually fights for public schools over private interests.

I will be interested to see where this one goes if only because I know I can’t really trust the Republicans on these sorts of bills, and they are very sneaky when it comes to things like harming public education.