Utah's special county
From its perch at the top of the state, the Ogden Standard-Examiner offers a theory on "why the rest of the Beehive State tends to remark unflatteringly about so-called Happy Valley."In a nutshell, Utah County's image problem is due to leaders like — Sen. Margaret Dayton, the Standard-Examiner says.
At issue is her ignorance and accompanying willingness to kill additional funding for the International Baccalaureate program in various Utah schools.The Orem Republican crushed the unanimously supported House bill because she was handed an Eagle Forum tract that claims IB propagandizes for one-world government.
The temptation is to hoot over such paranoia. Except it isn't funny -- these people run state government. Dayton, as we noted, chairs the Senate Education Committee, yet apparently knows nothing about the International Baccalaureate program except the unfounded rumors she's been fed by other people and organizations that are equally clueless about it.Update: Dayton has apol0gized to IB students and their parents "for not being more appropriate in my comments in committee," after Gov. Jon Huntsman (a son in IB) and others came out in support of the program. Sponsor Rep. Carol Spackman Moss said the bill was salvaged after she talked to "wiser, more reasonable people . . . who realized it would be an embarrassment to our state if that story went national."
The program is set to receive $100,000, but it's too late to stop the story from going national.
2 Comments:
I'm late on this post but I am glad the story has gone national; anything that embarrasses these jerks and displays their little minds to the rest of the country is fine by me. My eldest, an honors graduate of a Utah high school, who went to a college as far away from Utah as she could get, always used to get ticked off as we drove through Utah valley on vacations. When I asked her why she said she could just feel her mind being squeezed into a narrow little self-satisfied tube.
I always thought it appropriate that Utah County (where I live) was called "Happy Valley." The term comes from Samuel Johnson's book Prince Rasselas. The prince spends his entire life trying to escape from "Happy Valley."
Post a Comment
<< Home