Author: Jesse

The Utah Legislature should refrain from “reforming” Utah’s excellent judicial selection and retention system.

Our “merit-based” system was adopted in 1985, the culmination of a long process begun in 1945 to establish a selection system devoid of partisan influence. Our Constitution requires selection of judges be “based solely upon consideration of fitness for office without regard to any partisan political consideration.” A nominating commission winnows applications and forwards a short list to the governor, who selects the final candidate, which the Senate must confirm.

The application process is robust. Applicants must not only give their education and work history but also provide judicial and attorney references — including lawyers who have been adverse to the applicant, and for judge applicants, attorneys who have appeared before them. After screening, the commission interviews applicants. Before certifying the list of nominees to the governor, the commission publishes the names for public comment and may remove a name if the commission receives new information that the applicant is unfit to serve as a judge.

Finally, all judges stand for retention election after a number of years. Before that retention election, there is a robust performance review conducted by the Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission, or JPEC. JPEC surveys lawyers, court staff and jurors; gathers data regarding judicial education, time standards and discipline; accepts public comments; and conducts courtroom observations. Judges are rated on a five-point scale regarding legal ability, integrity and temperament, administrative skills and procedural fairness, and a ranking of 3.6 or higher is required to meet the standards for retention. Commissioners use a “blind” evaluation process in reviewing materials and voting on whether each judge has met the standards for retention. All this material is made available to the public prior to a retention election. Judges may decide not to stand for retention election after they have reviewed their performance evaluations and JPEC’s recommendation.

Utah’s system of selection, review and retention is a national model. Professor Jordan Singer, consultant for the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, states:

“The Utah Legislature wisely committed to a comprehensive judicial performance evaluation program. That program is a national leader today, helping Utah’s judges improve on the bench and helping Utah’s citizens maintain the accountability of their judiciary. The JPEC is an outstanding model of thoughtfulness, balance, and vigilance in the service of the broader public. Utah has a remarkably effective and trustworthy system for selecting, training, and maintaining the accountability of its judges.”

Forty years ago, I moved to Utah to oversee the University of Utah College of Law internship program, which I did for over three decades. Each semester, I received multiple reports from our students about their experiences and what they were learning. They were uniformly impressed that their judges were intelligent, hardworking, thoughtful and ethical, and came away from their internships with high respect for the jurists. Judges also made presentations to classes I taught. I was able to observe our judiciary from a unique perspective and was consistently favorably impressed by the high quality of our Utah judiciary.

Moving to an elected system would jettison all the merit-focused work of nonpartisan nominating commissions. It might mean fewer excellent people would be able to mount a campaign. It would surely require that funds be raised and time be spent campaigning, taking judges away from their central job. It would create ethical challenges, as judges could be asked to hear cases brought by companies or law firms who had contributed to their campaigns. Judges would have little incentive to participate in the judicial performance evaluation process, since their retention would be based in politics, not an objective assessment of their performance. Presumably judges would campaign on political positions thought to appeal to the public. But since the vast bulk of a judge’s or a justice’s work is not “political” in the traditional sense, such a system would risk reducing the quality of the judiciary for the possibility that more judges would have the “right” political views. This would be a step in the wrong direction.

The Utah Legislature should not try to fix a problem that doesn’t exist.

Clayton Keller had two assists while Nick Schmaltz and Alex Kerfoot scored for Utah (21-21-9), which has now lost four games in a row (0-2-2). Karel Vejmelka made 20 saves.

“It’s frustrating for sure,” said Keller. “I think we’ve talked about it. We’ve had the right mindset. We’ve just got to keep going, learn from it. Having confidence, believing you can make the play in the [third period]. I think that’s the next step.”

“Today we had seven scoring chances in the third period,” said Utah head coach Andre Tourigny. “We need to finish more. We need to find ways to take quality shots. We need to find ways to get on the rebound and hit nets and stuff like that. But there’s stuff we can do better.”

Schmaltz opened the scoring on the power play 41 seconds into the second period, as he took a pass from Barrett Hayton and beat Tarasov glove side to give Utah a 1-0 lead.

Kerfoot made it 2-0 Utah 29 seconds into the third period as he put in the rebound off a shot from John Marino.

“I think that last game we took a step, this game was all right,” said Kerfoot. “They got a couple bounces, and then that put us on our heels a bit, but we were still pushing. We controlled the majority of the game. We’ve got to find a way to get two points.”

Marchenko scored at 6:25 to cut the lead to 2-1, firing in a loose puck in the slot for the goal.

The sponsor of the school “reallocation/strategic reinvestment” legislation that’s gleaned attention for months calls Utah’s system of public college and universities “a huge blessing” to the state’s students and citizens.

But there’s room for improvement.

During her presentation Friday to the House Education Committee, Rep. Karen Peterson, R-Clinton, said HB265 asks a fundamental question: “How do we make a good system better.”

In the end, the bill prompted fairly limited debate from committee members and the public. By majority vote, the committee passed along the bill for an eventual vote on the House floor.

Friday’s successful presentation may have moved at a speedy clip, but Peterson’s Higher Education Strategic Reinvestment bill evolved slowly.

There were “months and months” of conversation and collaborations between lawmakers, the state’s higher education leaders and institution presidents, noted Peterson.

A few key developments in recent years were catalysts for HB265.

First, said Peterson, the state’s higher education budgets — including tuition and state appropriations — have almost doubled over the past decade.

The student population over the same period did not experience commensurate growth. Meanwhile, administrative costs at Utah’s colleges have jumped.

“We’re going to give (school presidents) the flexibility to make sure this matches their campus and their role and mission within our system.”

—  Rep. Karen Peterson, R-Clinton

Given those trends, Peterson and other lawmakers asked the school presidents and the state’s higher education leaders to examine two guiding questions:

First, are the programs in the state’s higher education system still meeting the needs of both students and the state?

And second, are there opportunities to cut some administrative costs and low-performing programs — and then reinvest those savings in programs that may have high capacity, long waiting lists or high industry demand in Utah.

Strategic reinvestment

HB265 begins by establishing a strategic reinvestment fund.

The state’s base budget approved by the House earlier this week removed $60 million from the combined budgets of Utah’s eight degree-granting colleges and universities. As expected, the amount “cut” from each institution’s state appropriation was different — a nod, in part, to each school’s unique size and mission.

The state’s flagship school, the University of Utah, for example, had $19.5 million pulled from its budget. The regional Southern Utah University had $3.1 million pulled. And the state’s largest two-year institution, Salt Lake Community College, had $5.2 million pulled.

But the dollars cut from each school’s budget are not necessarily lost.

The fiscal amount pulled from each school’s budget, explained Peterson, remains earmarked for that school “with the opportunity for them to have all those funds back as they work through a (reallocation) process.”

The appropriation dollars pulled from the schools’ budgets were moved to Utah Board of Higher Education, where it will go through an iterative process as each college or university develops their respective strategic reinvestment plans.

The institutions will then bring those plans to the board and then the Legislature to have those funds reallocated.

Peterson expects the institutions to begin presenting their plans to the board in July for approval, before moving them on to the Legislature.

“We’ll see those plans in higher education appropriations in August, according to the bill, and then the Executive Appropriations Committee will have a chance to review those and then release the funds back to the institutions for them to execute on those plans.”

Reallocation criteria

As institutions begin building their respective reallocation plans, they will evaluate factors such as enrollment, high-demand programs and job outcomes of graduates of specific programs “and then decide where they need to invest more — and where they don’t,” said Peterson.

The schools will also be looking at institutional structures and inefficiencies — seeking opportunities to, say, combine colleges or administrative positions.

“We’re going to give (school presidents) the flexibility to make sure this matches their campus and their role and mission within our system,” assured Peterson.

The second part of HB265 limits bachelor’s degrees to no more than 120 credit hours — with an exception that they can go up to 126 with board approval if they require accreditation or licensing.

Peterson noted that some degree programs have started to creep up to 140 credit hours.

The bill also tasks the Legislature to look at performance funding.

The state already has a uniform performance model — but the same model is used for every institution.

“It’s time for us to have a conversation about those performance metrics and really think thoughtfully about what we want each of these colleges and universities to do within our system and how we reward them — especially for completions of students and getting students through their programs,” said Peterson.

Ensuring higher ed’s high ROI

During Friday’s committee meeting, Utah’s commissioner of higher education, Geoffrey Landward saluted the Legislature and its ongoing investment in the state’s higher education system.

“We also recognize, as a system, that we don’t have unlimited resources for higher education, and we bear a significant stewardship as a board for these resources,” said Landward.

“Every dollar appropriated to higher education we recognize is $1 that’s not being appropriated to K-12 or social services or infrastructure,” he said. ”Knowing that, and feeling the weight of that responsibility, means that we have to ensure that every single dollar that is invested in higher education, whether that’s from the legislature or the students who are paying tuition, provides significant value to the students and to the state.”

Landward noted that the budget reallocations outlined in HB265 allow for a reasonable reallocation approach, “not catastrophic adjustments.”

The bill also provides institution presidents with the discretion that they need to craft a reinvestment plan within a matrix of several criteria — rather than a single formulaic approach.

There are also strategic allowances for nuances, such as the demand for durable skills that can come from general education and the liberal arts.

The bill also allows for a “teach out” period where students who are already enrolled in a degree program won’t be impacted by possible program cuts.

“We will continue our work as a system,” Landward concluded, “to try and ensure that the students who attend our institutions — and the taxpayers who support our institutions — are getting the very best and highest value.”

Jamie Martin is returning to Weber State.

On Friday, the school announced that the Wildcat quarterback legend and longtime NFL signal caller has been hired as an offensive analyst on head football coach Mickey Mental’s staff.

“I’m honored to be back at Weber State, a place I’ve always loved and rooted for,” Martin said in a statement. “I’m excited to support coach Mental and contribute to the success of the players and the program.”

Martin, who will be turning 55 next week, arrived at Weber State in 1989 from Arroyo Grande, California, and went on to win the Walter Payton Award, given to the top player in Division I-AA (now FCS), in 1991.

Additionally, Martin was a two-time All-American, two-time Big Sky MVP and is still Weber State’s all-time leader in total offense with 12,287 career yards.

In 2014, Martin’s No. 10 jersey was retired by Weber State.

Undrafted out of college, Martin stuck as a free agent with the Los Angeles Rams in 1993 and wound up playing 16 years in the NFL for the Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams (four different stints), Washington Redskins (now Commanders), Jacksonville Jaguars (two different stints), Cleveland Browns, New York Jets, New Orleans Saints and San Francisco 49ers.

In all, Martin played in 53 NFL games and threw for 3,814 yards with 20 touchdowns and 21 interceptions.

Since his NFL career, Martin has been involved in coaching and various business ventures. In 2023, Martin returned to Utah to become head coach of the Ogden Jets, a post-high school football team.

“We are very excited to bring back Jamie to his home,” Mental said in a statement. “He is obviously a very decorated player here at Weber State and had a long career in the NFL, and anytime you can bring someone with that experience, it will go a long way in helping our players. He has great football knowledge and will bring great ideas to our staff. We are really excited to have him join us.”

Utah lawmakers gave final approval Thursday to the anticipated $60 million cut to Utah’s higher education instruction budget — with one senator casting the lone dissenting vote.

Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights, has been vocal in her opposition to HB1, the higher education base budget bill this year, standing against it in the Senate’s 21-1 vote that took place under suspended rules.

The measure passed in the House earlier this week 73-0. It now moves forward to the governor to be signed.

Base budget bills are typically a simple approval of the previous fiscal year’s budget for an area of the state operations, such as higher education, and can be added to with new appropriations for programs or proposals. But this year, legislative leaders pushed for $60 million to be shifted away from Utah’s eight public colleges and universities.

In the budget, they moved that money — a 10% cut to the funds for classroom instruction — to a separate line item called “strategic reinvestment.”

Schools will have to petition the Utah Board of Higher Education for their share of the money back only after showing that it will be reallocated for high-demand and high-wage majors. The state defined those programs in a recent audit that also instructed university presidents to cut “inefficient” programs with low enrollment and little impact on the state’s workforce.

“I am concerned about that reallocation,” Riebe told The Salt Lake Tribune after the vote.

The budget changes have sparked fears among higher education faculty that the state’s liberal arts programs will be the first on the chopping block, because they won’t be able to measure up with metrics focused on salaries.

A complementing bill, HB265, tasks the governing Utah Board of Higher Education with coming up with the specific criteria for how to make the cuts and reallocations; that’s slated for a first committee hearing Friday.

Geoff Landward, Utah’s commissioner over higher education, said he wants to ensure the decisions take into account several measurements, including salaries but also community impact. He doesn’t want to see the humanities or social sciences diminished or targeted, he has said, and those will always remain in the required general education classes students take.

Still, Riebe, who works in K-12 education, echoed the faculty concerns last week during an initial debate about the higher education budget. The state, she said, needs teachers and social workers that aren’t always highly paid.

“It shouldn’t all be about the dollars and the cents,” the senator said. “There are a lot of jobs out there that are important to our community but don’t pay a lot.”

She also said she was “disheartened” that the talk had focused on wages instead of passion.

Riebe was joined in speaking out against the cuts by Republican Sen. John Johnson and Evan Vickers, but both supported the final budget measure Thursday. The three senators spoke about how the liberal arts create better citizens who can think critically, collaborate and adapt — and therefore are better workers, too.

“Johnson, Vickers and I all were concerned about creating a better workforce with critical thinkers,” Riebe added Thursday.

Sen. Ann Millner, R-Ogden, is the Senate sponsor of HB1 and the previous president of Weber State University. She has said that the reallocation will help reduce redundancies with programs offered at multiple institutions that don’t attract a lot of students and end up not using state funding as well as she would like to see.

She also pushed back Thursday about the measure being labeled a cut when talking about the bill before the vote.

“It’s still in this budget,” Millner said. “It’s just moved to the Board of Higher Education.”

Overall, the higher education base budget also includes a $2.93 billion allocation from the general fund in income taxes for operating and capital expenses. And there’s $71.5 million from the general fund for performance funding for schools, based on how many students they enroll and graduate.

The total operating budget, for all of higher education in the state, including money collected through tuition and other revenue streams, is $12.84 billion, according to HB1.

Millner said she anticipates adjustments, through separate bills, as the session moves forward.

Anthony Edwards was excellent in a hard-fought win Wednesday against Phoenix. The 23-year-old was all over the floor on both ends, delivering a masterful performance in a high-intensity, high-stakes bout.

So you could pretty much chalk the guard up for a no-show on Thursday in Utah against the lowly Jazz. Or, at least you could in the past. Because Edwards has long been a player who gets up for the big ones, and effectively sits out the small ones, particularly when one game is played the day after another.

That was not the case Thursday.

On the day he was named an All-Star for the third consecutive season, Edwards performed as such in Minnesota’s 138-113 rout of the Jazz (10-36) — the Wolves’ fifth-straight victory.

One evening after posting a stacked stat line against Phoenix, the star guard tallied 36 points, 11 assists, six rebounds and three blocks as Minnesota won its second game in as many nights.

He’s the first player in Wolves’ history to record a game with 35-plus points, 10-plus assists and three blocked shots.

“I thought he was outstanding,” Wolves coach Chris Finch told reporters. “His approach, when he came out after his first shift … I told him, ‘That’s the way to set the tone of what we want out there.’ Both ends of the right floor … making the right play … didn’t force anything, got all his teammates involved, played defense.”

After the Wolves fell to Dallas in the Western Conference finals in the spring — a series in which Edwards appeared to be worn by its conclusion — the guard noted fatigue as a factor, and spoke to a knowledge of the conditioning he must possess to be able to perform at a high level that deep into the postseason.

While that entails offseason work, which Edwards mentioned in the moment, there’s also something to conditioning yourself with the rigorous regular season slate. What better way to prep yourself for the persistent playoff battles than by putting your body through the ringer in Phoenix one night, and Utah the next.

That’s not a physical test Edwards has passed in the past, but he aced it this week. He was the most physically dominant player in both outings, showing no sign of wear Thursday in Utah. His effort and decision-making paved the way for all players around him to succeed.

On Thursday, that included a number of reserves making the most of their opportunities. Julius Randle left the game in the first half with a groin injury and did not return. Mike Conley was out with a sprained thumb. Donte DiVicenzo is still out with his foot injury.

So Minnesota (26-21) is finally having to dip deeper into its bench, and those guys continue to deliver. Rob Dillingham finished with 19 points on 8-for-11 shooting to go with eight assists. Luka Garza — who figures to enter the rotation if Randle misses extended time — had 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting. Jaylen Clark was again a defensive force. The Wolves won Clark’s 17 minutes by 34 points.

“Our bench was huge,” Finch told reporters. “Doing everything out there for us.”

The Wolves won Edwards’ 35 minutes by 25 points.

Finch has touted the need for consistency, particularly in this favorable stretch as Minnesota looks to finally establish the foundation of habits needed to create an identity it could lean on for a potential postseason run. All of that centers on its star player.

And, if Thursday was any indication, Edwards may be ready to step and deliver.

Utah’s fourth and eighth graders are outpacing most of the country in math and reading, according to new national data released Wednesday.

However, Utah’s scores have remained relatively unchanged since 2022, when the National Assessment of Educational Progress — also known as the Nation’s Report Card — was last administered.

Every two years, the national assessment is provided to a sample of students in fourth and eighth grade, allowing for comparisons across states. It is separate from Utah’s standardized exams.

The latest results also indicate that while Utah students have made some progress, proficiency rates in both grades and subjects have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.

State auditors already flagged that lack of progress as “problematic” after a December report from the Legislative Auditor General found Utah students across the board are not improving.

“In other words, students who are proficient will likely remain proficient the following year, and students who are not proficient will likely remain not proficient,” the audit said.

Utah sees declines in reading comprehension

Utah has made slight gains in math proficiency for both fourth and eighth grades since 2022, the national assessment results indicate.

Fourth graders saw the most improvement, with math proficiency rising from 32% in 2022 to 35% in 2024. Eighth-grade math proficiency separately increased by 1%, from 26% in 2022 to 27% last year.

However, eighth-grade reading proficiency slid backward, dropping from 32% to 29%. Fourth graders also saw a slight dip, with proficiency falling from 27% to 26%.

That mirrors a national trend in declining reading comprehension.

“While Utah continues to perform well overall, with only three states or jurisdictions outperforming Utah, the decline in eighth-grade reading highlights the challenges schools face in reversing downward trends in literacy proficiency,” Utah State Board of Education officials said in a news release Wednesday.

USBE said it is working to identify the causes behind the reading score declines and is “expanding resources for reading programs and fostering innovative approaches to literacy education.”

Performance gaps in Utah remain wide

Achievement gaps between Utah’s underperforming student groups and their peers have remained relatively unchanged since 2022, according to NAEP results.

Across both grades and subjects, Hispanic students had average scores between 20-30 points lower than their white peers, though not significantly different from two years ago.

The gap between economically disadvantaged students and non-economically disadvantaged students also remains wide, with these students scoring on average between 22-29 points lower than their peers.

The NAEP did not provide data on Utah’s Black students, noting that “reporting standards were not met.“

Reading comprehension drop most ‘notable challenge’ nationally

Overall, The Nation’s Report Card brings good news for math but less encouraging news for reading across the U.S.

Nationally, fourth-grade math scores improved between 2022 and 2024, a two-point gain that follows a five-point decline from 2019 to 2022, according to a news release. Eighth-grade scores in math remained stagnant.

Officials from The National Center for Education Statistics said the most “notable challenge” in the 2024 data is reading comprehension.

Those scores dropped in both fourth and eighth grades since 2022, continuing declines first reported before the pandemic.

In 2024, the percentage of eighth-graders reading below NAEP Basic, or below proficiency, was the largest in the assessment’s history, according to a news release, and the percentage of fourth-graders scoring not proficient was the largest in two decades. NAEP tests were first administered in 1969.

“NAEP has reported declines in reading achievement consistently since 2019, and the continued declines since the pandemic suggest we’re facing complex challenges that cannot be fully explained by the impact of COVID-19,” said NCES Associate Commissioner Daniel McGrath in a Wednesday news release.