Brian’s Utah Weblog

My baby cousin died today.

He was nineteen years old.

I last saw him at Thanksgiving dinner.  He seemed robust but a bit teenagerish. I knew he got in trouble sometimes but I thought he would find something good to do, something he cared about, eventually.  Being a teenager is hard.  Sometimes the consequences are just too awful.

When I was in junior high I would visit my aunt and uncle and my infant cousin in their ground floor apartment a few blocks from us.  He would giggle and cry and demand to be fed.

“I don’t think Senator Stevenson is going to cry, but if somebody can make him cry here today, more power to him.”

-Rep. Brad Last (R-Dixie)

There was a discussion of the value of class size reduction versus its cost in the Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee. Several representatives from the Republican side suggested that class size reduction doesn’t lead to much improvement in education for typical students. Of course improvement in their rubric can be measured only by standardized test scores. I’m not surprised that the opponents of education funding managed to manufacture a study that reached that result but it doesn’t reflect the reality in classrooms.

It’s always good to be up here for committee meetings. The House and Senate floors are usually much less important, less interactive, and less interesting than committee meetings but they are open for business, too. Committee Schedules are online, as are agendas. Pick one you like and show up.