Utah Bill Says If A Student Is “Underperforming,” Then Parent Pays For “Remediation”

A proposed bill in Utah has got to be the latest addition to The Worst Parent Engagement Ideas:

Utah Republican State Senator Aaron Osmond has introduced a bill that would make this a new law:

students who fail to achieve academic proficiency would be required to participate in remediation, the cost of which would be charged in full or in part to their parents.

Here’s the response from a member of the State School Board:

“I think it’s better if we can find ways to engage parents in schools in positive ways and encourage these parent-teacher partnerships and not have to legislate what parents will do and what they will pay for if they don’t do it,” she said. “It can just come across, I think, as punitive or heavy-handed if you’re not careful.”

2 thoughts on “Utah Bill Says If A Student Is “Underperforming,” Then Parent Pays For “Remediation”

  1. Larry, do you think this will fly? It is an interesting concept, but can you see the Utah Legislature passing such a measure?

  2. That’s a good question. I have no sense of Utah politics. I know if such a bill would be introduced here in California, it would be called insane. The quotations in the article responding to the bill were very measured, so who knows?

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