College and Career Counseling Bill - Progresses

Fri. Jan 27 - I was the only member of the public to testify against HB65. It passed the House Education committee with only the dissenting votes of Rep Sumsion and Rep Newbold. It may be that some committee members voted for it because they expect it to fail to win funding in the appropriations process. Without an appropriation, the bill is of no effect. My argument was that America's greatness comes from local creativity and meeting needs at the local level.....Not from implementing central planning which is dictated by the largest bureaucracy possible. This is an example of the latter.

College and Career Counseling Bill - A Bad Idea

Rep. Patricia Arent  has proposed HB65 College and Career Counseling for High School Students. This bill is on the agenda of the House Education committee for 2:00 pm today. It would provide $800,000 to hire 18 high school counselors who would work only in helping students apply to college and seek scholarships.

This is a bad idea because it is one more thread tying the hands of school districts. It gives money for counseling, but forces the money to be used only for college and career counseling. School districts know best where to use funds for school counselors. Local control of schools is better than state level control of schools.


I had the opportunity, as a member of the Davis School Board, to speak on this subject to the Utah School Board Association Joint Legislative Committee. I will attend the committee meeting this afternoon to testify against the bill.