Blog Archives - Jay Evensen

Can the value of a Down Syndrome child be measured?

9/28/2016

In England, where doctors appear to be a bit more provocative than in the United States, an argument has erupted over how to apply a cost-benefit analysis to human life.

As the Daily Mail reported earlier this month, physicians at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists suggested new tests to determine whether pregnant women are carrying babies with Down Syndrome should come with an economic analysis “that includes the lifetime costs of caring for children and adults” with the condition.

Who sets the vision for education in Utah?

9/27/2016

One of my favorite things to ask politicians and school administrators is to explain who sets the vision for public education in Utah.

It’s not an easy question. I don’t think there is a right answer.

At least, candidates at a recent debate I moderated didn’t get any closer than I have to articulating one.
That doesn’t mean people won’t claim to have one. But merely having a vision doesn’t count if you

Utah is a bad state for teachers? Think again

9/26/2016

If you’re used to hearing bad news about public education in Utah — teachers are underpaid and in short supply, classrooms are too crowded, politicians don’t care, etc. — here’s a switch. Wallet Hub just released a study that ranks Utah ninth in the nation on a list of the best states for teachers.

Low teacher pay is not unique to Utah. The study ranked the five states with the highest salaries and the five with the lowest (adjusted for cost of living). Utah didn’t make either list. Michigan has the highest paid teachers and Hawaii has the lowest.

Utah, not surprisingly, made the list of the highest student-teacher ratios, coming in 50th, just below California (the study measured the 50 states plus the District of Columbia).

Also, Utah was on the list of the lowest public school spending per student, but, contrary to some other per pupil expenditure lists, it did not finish

What Utahns could learn today from hurricane Katrina

9/20/2016

NEW ORLEANS – Some disasters are so big they become part of a city’s identity. When I casually ask the man bagging my order of fries at a Krystal Burger downtown how long ago hurricane Katrina hit, he recites the answer so fast you would think he had been cramming for a history test. “Eleven years.”

Eleven years and one month, as of next week, to be exact.

Facebook data center deal was bad for taxpayers

9/14/2016

Maybe this means Utah has matured. You should hope so.

New Mexico won the Facebook data center sweepstakes. Good for the folks there. Hope they enjoy the 50 permanent jobs they get in exchange for giving up all property taxes on the project for the next 30 years in addition to $10 million from the state’s economic development fund, as the Deseret News reported.

15 years later, are airports any safer?

9/13/2016

TSA checkpoints are like the flu shots of the travel industry. We think they make us safe, at least within an acceptable range of probabilities. We hate them as much as we hate needles in the arm, but we don’t want to get rid of them.

Most of all, we hope the illusion of safety they provide protects the herd.

Unfortunately, a few of the cattle aren’t getting the message.

In the first week of September alone, TSA workers found 47 loaded firearms in carryon bags at airports nationwide. Of those, 17 had a bullet chambered. They found 15 more that were unloaded (a weekly summary is posted on the TSA Blog).

Salt lake City wasn’t on the list of places where travelers were discovered to be locked and loaded — this time. But our airport is a frequent flyer on the

Is a recession coming, and will it swallow millennials?

9/12/2016

A recession may be as difficult to accurately predict as the World Series champion in September, but some ominous signs have appeared.

Chief among these is a new Wallet Hub report that shows a disturbing increase in credit card debt nationwide. Americans are whipping out their cards in record fashion, and because so few of them are defaulting on their debt (only 3.13 percent of borrowers), bankers are eager to extend as much easy credit as possible.

The debt footprint, if you will, is eerily similar to that of 2007, right before the Great Recession began. In the second quarter of 2016, Americans piled on a combined $34.4 billion in new credit card debt, Wallet Hub reports. In the second quarter of 2007, the total was $31.1 billion.

Total credit card debt today is $912 billion. In 2007 it was $898 billion. Researchers predict the total

A-leppo into the abyss?

9/8/2016

Goodbye 15 percent? Or ... ?

When you’re the Libertarian candidate for president, it’s hard enough to be taken seriously, even if you do and say everything right. But in a year when many Americans seem dissatisfied with the Republican and Democratic candidates, Libertarian Gary Johnson has been enjoying unprecedented support (for a Libertarian).

If Trump is elected, I'll ... I'll ... I'll ...

9/8/2016

It’s September of another presidential year, which means it’s time for celebrities to announce they’ll leave the country if the Republican is elected.
This might actually affect the vote (in which direction is unclear), except that none of them has carried out previous such threats.

Beyond the question of partisanship — I certainly am not endorsing Trump — shouldn't public figures be held to answer for promises they make in the

Keeping sports from dominating high school academics

9/7/2016

“Exercise is essential to the health of the whole body; it increases the circulation and the power of breathing, and stimulates every part of the body to a good healthy growth.” — Winfred E. Baldwin, 1896

Winfred Baldwin, who wrote, “The Werner Educational Series: Primary Lessons in Human Physiology and Hygiene for Schools,” may not have realized exactly how stimulated people would get over organized and competitive school exercise.

Were he to see our day, he might get dyspeptic.

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