Utah Governor Spencer Cox appeared on semi-monthly Direct Link radio program on 2-28-2023. Courtesy UBA-Zoom.
SALT LAKE CITY — The first Direct Link program for 2023, featuring Utah Governor Spencer Cox, was held Tuesday evening and heard on Newstalk KVNU.
At the outset the Governor was asked about his approval of HB 215, the funding bill for teacher salaries and optional education opportunities.
“Last year when the bill was going through I didn’t feel like it did a good job of balancing those two options (of) having school choice but also supporting our local schools, and especially our teachers who I believe are the most important part of our schools. All the data I’ve looked at, and we’ve had studies done at Utah State University that show the greatest determined outcome in a child’s education is the teacher. You can take away everything else and if you have a good teacher the child will do well,” he explained.
Cox said a lot of work went into this bill that supports teachers and also supports school choice.
The program host asked the governor about some teacher’s criticism of this legislation, with one educator saying the bill will ‘gut’ K through 12 public education.
“That’s just certainly not true, and anybody that would say that hasn’t paid attention to what’s actually happening with public education. We’re looking at the greatest funding in the history of our state for public education this session. And not even record funding, we’re talking record funding by a long ways. This will be by far the most money that has ever been put into education, with a relatively small amount, $45 million dollars, that is going to school choice.”
Another listener asked the governor, with the record snowfall this year, what is being done to make good use of all the moisture that we’ve received this winter.
“All-in-all just an exceptional water year, the best we could hope for, and it couldn’t come at a better time. So, what are we doing, of course our reservoirs system are ready for the water, most of them are at or below 50 percent, so we actually need 2 or 3 years like this to fully replenish the water in our systems. Obviously, the Great Salt Lake is a major issue as well.”
Governor Cox said there’s been legislation last year and this year around water conservation and the lake with $500 million funding last year.
While the final budget isn’t out yet, he said they expect a little more than $500 million dollars this year, so a billion dollars total to work on these water conservation projects.
Direct Link is a semi-monthly program heard across the state and made possible by the Utah Broadcaster’s Association.