I won't drop the ball for UVU!

Our Utah County State Legislators Have Really Dropped the Ball for UVU Another fall semester has begun at Utah Valley University. Once again, UVU administrators are struggling with how to handle more students with less money. UVU’s enrollment is expected to grow by 11 percent this fall. That’s the latest in a pattern of rapid expansion of the student body. In 2008, UVU grew by 12 percent. Last year, it was 8 percent. That is a phenomenal growth rate, by far the largest in the state! But, unbelievably, UVU’s budget was also cut by 12 percent last year and the legislature is considering more cuts next year! That is a travesty. We should be thrilled so many students want to take advantage of Utah County’s public university. UVU is the college of choice for many of our young people through Utah Valley, the state, and even other parts of the country. The future of our valley and our state is directly correlated to these students’ ability to receive an excellent education. But such rapid growth is causing severe strain to UVU, increasing class sizes, forcing the hiring of more temporary teachers, and leading to a frantic scramble for classroom and lab space. Some facts: 1. UVU receives the least per student in state funding of any state higher education institution, and this despite its record enrollment growth. 2. UVU has one of the lowest ratios of campus space per student. 3. UVU President Matt Holland recently had to make a public appeal to Utah Valley residents to urge local legislators to support a new science building on campus. Why weren’t they more proactive? It’s high time we had state legislators from Utah County who are excited about UVU. As a representative from the UVU District to the Utah State House, I will make UVU a top priority. This is what I would do: 1. Sponsor legislation that would mandate more equalized spending across our higher education institutions. We need to place UVU on a competitive par with other higher education institutions in terms of state funding 2. Regularly attend UVU Board of Trustee meetings to understand UVU’s needs and work with the UVU Board and President Matt Holland to meet those needs. It’s embarrassing for the university president to have to make a public appeal to residents to lobby their state legislators. State legislators should be wholeheartedly on board from the very beginning. I certainly will be. 3. Create a study group of legislators to examine the creation of loan and grant programs to help low-income high school seniors qualify for tuition. We need to provide incentives for young people to go to college. Our current legislators don’t do that. For example, in 2007, a bill to provide a $300 tax break to lower income families for higher education tuition was never even voted on by the House. Orem legislator Brad Daw never supported the bill and Orem Senator Margaret Dayton voted against it. Not only would I have voted for it, I would have sponsored the legislation in the first place. 5. Be the Leader in Pushing Specific UVU Projects. Our local Orem representatives, including Brad Daw and Margaret Dayton, spend much time and energy posturing as tough guys against the federal government, but they don’t devote nearly as much energy to the needs of UVU right here in their own backyard. (Despite the fact that they represent the part of Orem that includes UVU, they did not initiate the effort to get state legislative approval of the new science building!) But this is not just an accident or an oversight: Philosophically, both Dayton and Daw are fundamentally opposed to investing in public education. I think they are out of step with the majority of people in Utah Valley. Do we really want to oppose making the best investment a society can make, which will enable all our bright young people to make the very most of their educational opportunities? Human minds are the last things we can afford to waste! I think it’s time for action. It’s time for all of us here in Utah Valley to show some pride and get behind our very own Utah Valley University! The quality of the education of our children and grandchildren depends on it. And the very future quality of our society depends on these students being able to do quality work at a quality university. Let’s not let them down! Alan Keele, Candidate for the Utah House from District 60, Orem.

A life-long resident of Orem, whose great-great-grandparents on my Patten side actually settled Orem, I am a moderate pluralist who believes every American should have a voice in civic affairs. My candidacy is supported by moderate Republicans, moderate Democrats, and moderate Independents, all of whom have a great deal in common: we want to help make a better life for the residents of Orem, of Utah County, of the State of Utah, of the United States, and for all other citizens of the planet. But “all politics are local,” so we need to begin at home.

My first priority is, and our first priority should be, to help provide a quality education for our most precious resource: our children. Each child in Orem deserves the very best loving and intelligent teachers focused precisely on his or her needs. The future of our community hangs in the balance. Will we have increasing numbers of capable, competent, creative citizens or increasing masses of discouraged, dysfunctional deadbeats? Education is the key!
We can do better to arrange for optimum classroom size and for more highly qualified and adequately paid teachers who are thrilled to be able to bless the lives of young Oremites.

We must not allow ourselves to be misled by well-intentioned libertarians posing as conservatives who do not believe in funding our public school system! There’s just too much at stake here in Orem for us to allow radical experiments in education by unqualified ideologues driven by extremist special interest groups such as the ultra-right-wing Eagle Forum or Patrick Henry Caucus. Our public school system is the safest, most conservative, proven method for providing a good education for all our children, but it requires support! It’s our best investment for the future. It cannot be allowed to stagnate and we cannot allow it to be attacked and undercut by extremists.

Some other important priorities for me are: Helping to reduce both fossil fuel use and our terrible winter air pollution by bringing all Orem homes up to modern insulation standards. This can be done at zero net cost, using the money saved from vastly reduced future utility bills. Such a project would create many jobs, especially in our hard-hit construction sector. We also need better public transportation and urban planning to reduce air pollution, traffic congestion, and needless sprawl (thus saving Oremites huge sums in fuel costs, needless expenses for extra cars for family members, etc.)

I am open to suggestions for other ideas which will improve the quality of life for citizens of Orem. I must say I am adamantly opposed to ridiculous, costly, (and probably unconstitutional) “Message Bills” which serve no purpose but to allow certain egotistical legislators to strut around the grandstand for their narrow ideological base.

Like the vast majority of Oremites, I am a proud American, a patriot who loves America and rejoices that Utah was able to become a State of the Union back in 1896. I believe Utahns ought to continue to be the very best patriotic Americans, not supporting fearful, angry seditionists who speak ill of our government, our president, and of our nation, implying that we ought to somehow try to secede from the Union. (That bloody flag of States Rights was waved by traitors way back in the 1850’s and the ensuing war didn’t end well for Americans, especially for those from places like South Carolina, if you recall.)

We need to help build America, to help model for all Americans what a successful community looks like. Orem and Utah can lead the way or we can gradually slide downward in all the indicators of success in a community, especially education, to always be tied with Mississippi for last place. It’s a clear choice! I think we can work together to make Orem more of a shining city on a hill than it already is.

Thanks for your support!

Cordially, Alan Keele