Here's an idea, let the parents decide!

Rep. Laura Black (D) of Sandy is sponsoring a bill (HB 242) that would change the date of the cutoff for Kindergarten from September to be in July. In a Salt Lake Tribune article (see here) about the bill, Rep. Black is quoted as saying, "It doesn't sound like very much when you're an adult, but two months in the life of a child can be huge in terms of what their development is."

I've got a better idea, let the parents of the child decide if their child is ready for Kindergarten. My wife and I have done this for everyone of our children. Our oldest child, whose birthday is in June, could have started Kindergarten the year he turned five. My wife and I decided he was not ready for Kindergarten that year and waited a year before enrolling him in Kindergarten. Do parents really need the government to tell them that their child is or isn't ready for Kindergarten?

If it Quacks like a Duck...

So the Woods Cross City Council has made yet another bad decision. Three members of the City Council, Don Moore, Rick Earnshaw, and Jon Hadlow, all voted to amend the general plan to allow Sinclair to add storage tanks to their facility. These storage tanks would hold jet fuel. This goes completely against what previous members of the City Council have tried to do. That is, move Woods Cross away from being a heavy industrial arm pit of the county. I'm shocked that they would make such a move, especially in an election year. In an article in the Davis County Clipper, Don Moore is quoted as saying, "it looks like we’re doing something wrong if we remove the whole paragraph.”
If you're making wording changes just so it doesn't look like you're doing something wrong, maybe you need to take a step back and see if you really should be making the changes at all.
Avoiding the appearance of evil only works if you are avoiding the evil as well.
Kudos to Tamy Dayley and Jennifer Decker for voting against this bad change.

Force lawmakers to write a report

I just read through HB322 which would force High School students to write a report about a teen who was killed in a car accident before they could get their drivers license. I think it would be a good idea to force all lawmakers to write a ten page report about why so-called "message bills" are bad, before they are allowed to submit a bill.
Now I have had loved ones die in car accidents. I've even had a loved one who was a teenager die in a car accident. I still don't think that making a law that forces a student to write a report is a good idea. Scaring a child into the proper behavior is not a good way to encourage proper behavior. Maybe in Rep. Tilton's mind, scaring someone into acting the way they should is the right way to do it. I don't believe it is.
So who wants to put forth a bill for me that makes lawmakers write a report?