Highs, lows -- in space, underground

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Aug 12, 2007 | by Jay Evensen Deseret Morning News

Sometimes, when summer is in full bloom and the sun is high, the best thing to do is to grab some lemonade, sit back in a lawn chair and contemplate the world as it spins around. Here are some thoughts for a warm day:

-- It's easy to bash mine owner Bob Murray, who used a nationally televised press conference this week as a bully pulpit. He sounded more like an out-of-control talk-radio caller than a man whose Utah mine had just buried six men. In fact, at first he seemed concerned with just about everything but the disaster at hand.

But one thing can't be forgotten. As eccentric as he is, Murray is one of the few men on earth who know what it's like to be trapped in a mine. His ordeal lasted 12 hours. As he told an Associated Press reporter, "It seemed like an eternity. When you're in there in the dark, life goes by. There's nothing you can do but sit there and wait."

Beneath all the bluster, he has to be thinking about that.

-- Isn't it amazing how, despite scandals involving drunken astronauts and a strange 950-mile odyssey by one astronaut to confront her rival for another's affection, the site of a shuttle launch can make people forget everything and watch in awe? Last week's launch of a shuttle containing teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan had my rapt attention, wondering as always what it would be like to be aboard.

-- And isn't it a sad commentary on the space program that the state-of-the-art vehicle Morgan is flying is virtually identical to the one her predecessor, Christa McAuliffe, used more than 21 years ago? Shouldn't the program have gone through a generation or two of new vehicles and concepts during that time? Do you drive the same car you drove in 1986?

-- I'd like to know if anyone really thinks it's a good idea to vote on splitting school districts within Salt Lake County along east-west lines and then let state lawmakers work out how the fast- growing west side will pay for all of its new school construction needs? Regardless of how you feel about the issue, where does all that sudden faith in the Legislature come from?

-- Along those lines, why does anyone think only the folks splitting off from existing school districts deserve to vote on the proposals? Aren't the people left over in the old districts going to have to create new districts, as well? And aren't they as affected by the vote, if not more, than the people splitting off?

-- The school voucher issue is bound to heat up soon, dividing defenders of the status quo against people who believe competition and choice would help the entire system. Why is everyone ignoring the report by the new Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, a distinguished group that recommends drastic changes in how we educate children?

The report, funded by groups that include both the Bill and Melinda Gates and Annie E. Casey foundations, suggests setting up state systems in which schools would be operated by independent contractors and overseen by local districts. The schools would be limited-liability corporations, some owned by teachers, others by private groups or other organizations. Each would have a performance contract and would be considered a public school.

Most importantly, parents could choose which school to use, and performance records would be public and thorough. Schools serving disadvantaged kids would get more money than the others. Popular schools could not discriminate in admissions.

Read the report at www.skillscommission.org. Then consider how we're quarreling over baby steps.

Jay Evensen is editor of the Deseret Morning News editorial page. E-mail: even@desnews.com