Speaker Lockhart diverts general education funds to tech initiative

I'm certainly not an expert on education, but did want to note something that was passed along:

It seems that that yesterday the Utah Senate decided to raise taxes to raise more funds for education in general, and Speaker Becky Lockhart is trying to shoe-horn much of that money into her tech initiative, which would provide an ipad to each Utah student. While I don't know enough to dissect her proposal, one has to wonder if she's more worried about padding her resume with something flashy (for when she runs for governor in 2016) rather than using limited tax dollars to produce better student outcomes overall.

Here's the Trib on the matter:

A hijacking of sorts occurred in the Utah Senate Tuesday.

Senators approved taking perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars that were targeted to help equalize funding for schools around the state over the next four years, and earmarked it instead for a drive pushed by House Speaker Becky Lockhart to put more technology in schools.

The bill from yesterday (raising the funds) is HB111 and Speaker Lockhart's initiative is associated with HB131. Here's an interview with Lockhart on her initiative.

This (page 85) shows Utah is still dead last in per-pupil spending.

If interested, your local Rep/Senator can be found here and their Twitter and email addresses can be found here. Speaker Lockhart is @BeckyLockhart and blockhart@le.utah.gov

What say YOU?