Guest opinion: Family should be priority for interim
by Derek Monson
The 2023 Utah legislative session closes this week. When it concludes, lawmakers will have enacted hundreds of new laws and policy reforms designed to address issues such as economic growth, education, healthcare and infrastructure. It often seems that there is no civic institution as important and impactful in society as government, guided by its elected institutional leaders.
But there is another civic institution guided clearly by leaders that is as important and impactful, if not more, to the well-being of society: families led by parents.
Family policy is economic policy, and vice versa. When parents make an education decision about where to live so their kids can attend a good school or about the next job they take in their quest to better support their family, they are making economic (housing and labor) decisions as well.
Too often in policy debates â including many in the current legislative session â we silo off family, economic and education policy from one another, when for most Utahns they are so interrelated that in some instances they are simply indistinguishable. That means that we may be missing important policy implications or straightforward solutions because we misunderstand the issue in one facet or another.
As we head into another interim between legislative sessions, policymakers and those working in the policy space should strive to better recognize and reflect in dialogue the connections between the economy, education and the family. Further, policy should treat parents as the institutional leaders that they are â offering them the same space to act and level of respect in their institutional realm that education leaders demand in schools, government leaders demand in government, and business leaders demand in their businesses. If we do, we just might find unexpected progress not only in matters of family, but in education, government and the economy as well. (Read More)
News Releases
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Utah Senate Democratsâ statement regarding the passage of H.B. 467, Abortion Changes
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Congressmen Blake Moore and Jimmy Panetta reintroduce the bipartisan LODGE Act
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Lee bill makes travelers free as a bird
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Romney, colleagues lead bipartisan push for new tax agreement with Taiwan
U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT), Ranking Member of the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, The Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy, today joined the Subcommitteeâs Chairman Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and their colleagues Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Todd Young (R-IN), and Chris Coons (D-DE) in leading a bipartisan push toward the enactment of a new tax agreement with Taiwan. The senators introduced a resolution that encourages the Administration to begin negotiating a tax agreement with Taiwan in order to further strengthen economic ties between the U.S. and Taiwan. (Read More)
Utahâs consumer sentiment drops in February
Utahâs consumer sentiment decreased from 75.6 in January to 70.4 in February, according to the Kem C. Gardner Policy Instituteâs Survey of Utah Consumer Sentiment. A similar survey by the University of Michigan found sentiment rose from January (64.9) to February (67.0) among Americans as a whole. (Read More)
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