He admits it wasn’t perfect, but Republican State Senator Lyle Hillyard said he believes education fared pretty well during the latest session of the Utah State Legislature. However, he said more needs to be done and he’ll be working on the issue during the summer recess. Hillyard said legislators have traditionally met on one Wednesday during the summer months, but it’s been decided to meet on a Tuesday as well this year. Hillyard outlined several topics that need to be addressed.
“For example, we really need to get a better approach on how we’re using technology,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of things that we may be getting as a state that local school districts just don’t understand or don’t have buy-in to them, and there’s got to be a better relationship there. We’re also looking at funding the WPU [the Weighted Pupil Unit], whether that should all be what we call above the line so it all can be handled more broadly or specifically.”
Hillyard said he believes that at the end of the summer, the education community will see changes they like, including the fact that there is more transparency.