Catholic school students attend as Gov. Herbert signs a proclamation for 'Utah School Choice Week'

Intermountain Catholic

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Students from Saint Andrew School attend the rally to support Parents for Choice in Education as Gov. Gary Herbert declares Jan. 27-Feb. 2, 2013, Utah School Choice Week. IC photo/Christine Young

SALT LAKE CITY — In conjunction with National School Choice Week and in partnership with Parents for Choice in Education, Gov. Gary R. Herbert signed a proclamation Feb. 1 declaring Jan. 27-Feb 2, 2013 "Utah School Choice Week."

Lt. Gov. Greg Bell and Christine Kearl, education deputy, represented the governor in declaring ‘Utah School Choice Week’ at a rally at which students from Saint Andrew School and Juan Diego Catholic High School attended, along with representatives from other schools from throughout the Salt Lake Valley.

"We have a lot more children than anywhere else in the nation, which is a wonderful thing, and so we have more children in classrooms and more children to finance," said Bell. "Utah is an open-choice, free-choice state, so we can have private, public, charter, home schools, or a mix. Students can receive a home and public school education, home and private school education and so on. We want to stay with that because we think these are the decisions that should be made by parents and children in their best interests."

Bell went on to say that better-paying jobs require advanced training. "We need 66 percent of our workforce to have some kind of post secondary educational training," he said.

Senator Stuart Adams, of District 22, announced a school choice option in the Carson-Smith Special Needs Scholarship bill. It is a voucher that allows special needs students to attend the private school of their choice, and has been available since 2005.

"The Carson-Smith Scholarship helps service about 700 kids with disabilities," said Sen. Adams, adding that it has been highly approved. The problem is it hasn’t had the ability to grow, so with the new Carson-Smith Scholarship bill we want to use general fund money to allow it to grow. We’ve come up with a formula that will allow it to service 7 percent of those who are in school. Right now there are about 11 percent with disabilities. It will bring about $4,500 a year in scholarship funds."

Parents for Choice in Education (PCE) board chair Robyn Bagley said the Carson-Smith Special Needs Scholarship is the kind of initiative that needs the public’s support. "Every time we move forward a school choice policy, we need the public to rally behind it and help let the legislators know this is what we want and need to meet the individual needs of our students," she said.

PCE is partnering with the governor for the second year in a row as he joins 25 other governors across the nation in signing proclamations recognizing the importance of giving parents school choice options to address children’s individual learning needs.

"We are fortunate to have a governor that supports school choice and has signed a proclamation on our behalf to celebrate and recognize this week," said Bagley.

Dr. Galey Colosimo, Juan Diego principal, also is a PCE board member who represents the Diocese of Salt Lake City. "The idea of PCE is to bring awareness to state legislators and the public at large about the opportunity we have in Utah to expand educational offerings as a way to meet the diverse and growing needs of our students," Colosimo said.

"The diocese is interested in PCE because our Catholic schools are a good alternative choice to the [public] school system," Colosimo said. "This is not to say they are an end to the public school system; rather, if we have a variety of educational offerings in the state, that is more helpful for families to choose how to educate their children."