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Read: Mr. Granato goes to Washington — for the first time

SLTrib: Former president sends message of hope for U.S.

Former President Bill Clinton addresses the audience during a campaign fund-raiser stop in Utah Sunday for his wife and presidential hopeful, Sen.Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. (Danny Chan La/The Salt Lake Tribune)

Hillary's stand-in
Former president sends message of hope for U.S.
The 'old horse' can still wow 'em
By Robert Gehrke

Former President Bill Clinton told an adoring crowd of supporters Sunday that his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, offers the best hope for the United States to restore its global standing, address inequality and bridge divides in the world.

"The first thing we have to do is send a big, loud signal to the rest of the world that the United States is back in the cooperation business, we're back in the diplomacy business," Clinton said. "We don't have any higher priority in the world than getting our standing back. She would do that more quickly than anyone else."

He would be supporting Hillary Clinton even if they weren't married, he told the standing-room only crowd of 1,500, because she is the most qualified, non incumbent candidate he would have the opportunity to vote for in the 40 years he has been voting.

Clinton, who arrived late wearing a gray jacket, white shirt and no tie, spun a trademark folksy, extemporaneous speech. He was greeted by whoops and shouts of "We love you, Bill."

"Lemme tell you, I'm really looking forward to this. I love being a surrogate," he said, joking that his wife has told him, "You have to work harder. Free campaign work is hard to get."

Clinton said he is mostly out of politics now, except in even years. "I'm sort of this old horse in the stable and they trot me out to see if I can still run a few laps. 'Oh, look. He can still move,' " he joked.

Clinton said the three biggest challenges in the country are growing inequality, unsustainable lifestyles and identity conflicts that divide groups, and Hillary Clinton can do the most to deal with those issues.

He acknowledged that his wife has high negative ratings in public opinion polls, but that is a result, he said, of 16 years of Republican attacks.

"I think she looks pretty good to be 60 years old and taken all that heat," he said.

Perhaps the biggest applause for Clinton came when he criticized the growth in spending while Republicans controlled government.

"They used to denigrate me as a liberal, they increased spending at more than twice the rate I did. I was a conservative," Clinton said.

In the coming days, the former president said, Hillary Clinton would be giving speeches on the potential economic benefits from policies that deter climate change.

After the 45-minute speech he spent nearly that much time shaking hands, posing for pictures and signing copies of his new book, Giving.

A line of supporters more than a block long began forming well before the doors to the University of Utah's ballroom opened, and people were pleased with what they heard.

"It's so easy to feel helpless and hopeless because of the events in the last seven years and to come away from this with hope that we can restore our place in the world," said Georgette Leventis.

Jean Ballard said the president's speech was "remarkable."

"I think he's one of the best speakers I've ever heard," she said. "I think he's just a brilliant man and I hope with the two of them we should be able to get our country back on track."

Tickets for the event cost $50 each, and the 1,200 seats sold out in just a few days, organizers said. Three hundred standing-room-only tickets, at $30 each, also sold out.

Clinton appeared earlier at a $500-per-person fundraiser at the home of Barry and Amy Baker near Park City with a private event for those making the maximum $2,300 contribution.

The two events are expected to bring in $350,000 or more to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Sen. Clinton had been planning to speak at a fundraiser in Utah in October, but canceled due to scheduling conflicts.

Before the event, Salt Lake County Councilwoman Jenny Wilson acknowledged that there was concern among organizers that they would be able to sell even 400 tickets for the event.

Wilson was one of a handful of prominent Utah Democrats who endorsed Hillary Clinton on Saturday. Others included former U.S. Rep. Karen Shepherd, former state Sen. Karen Hale, state Rep. Jackie Biskupski, Salt Lake County Councilmen Randy Horiuchi and Joe Hatch, and Democratic National Committeewoman Helen Langan.

Horiuchi said Clinton's two events exceeded expectations.

"There was an air of excitement for Senator Clinton that President Clinton adds," he said. "We have, for the first time in a long time, the opportunity for a Democrat to do well in Utah."
Utah Republican Party Chairman Stan Lockhart isn't so sure.

"I think the people of this state want someone who represents their values and their principles, and it's hard to believe that Hillary Clinton is the family values candidate," he said.

Utah had been slow to warm to Hillary Clinton. Utahns had given just $111,243 to Clinton through the end of September, according to figures from the Center For Responsive Politics, compared with $229,190 for Democrat Barack Obama and $4.6 million to Republican Mitt Romney. Obama had held a fundraiser in Utah and Romney, a Mormon who ran the Salt Lake Olympics, has held several.

After the event, Clinton headed back to the airport and left for Las Vegas. He had a fundraiser scheduled Sunday evening in Las Vegas, which has one of the early presidential primaries.
Republican National Committee spokesman Paul Lindsay discounted Hillary Clinton's prospects in Utah.

"Utah voters twice rejected Bill Clinton's candidacy, just like they will reject his wife's plans to raise taxes on working families in order to pay for the $763 billion in new government spending she has proposed," Lindsay said, citing the RNC's cost estimate on Clinton's new programs.

Bill Clinton has not fared well campaigning in Utah, finishing third in the state behind President George H.W. Bush and Texas billionaire Ross Perot in 1992.

His declaration in 1996 to create the 1.7-million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah is still viewed with disdain by many Utahns, particularly in rural parts of the state.

Rep Roz McGee: Is it time for a legislative ethics advosory commission?

The Utah Legislature is proposing a mechanism to evaluate the performance of judges, and, most important, on how to present solid information to voters for judicial retention elections.

I serve on the Judicial Retention Election Task Force, which will be recommending creation of an independent commission. The commission would use responsible, nonpolitical processes for evaluating the performance of judges. It is my belief that public confidence in government is fostered by such scrutiny and reporting.

Perhaps legislators should take a similar approach for legislators.

During the past decade, efforts to expand ethical safeguards (examples include campaign finance reform or an election commission) have met with resistance. A Salt Lake Tribune editorial and lobbyists have added fuel to a "fire of discontent," and a conflagration could come at any moment if we don't soon act on ethics reform. It is better for us to be prepared than to act only in a crisis.

An example might be last month's Utah State Board of Regents' internal review of former Utah College of Applied Technology President Robert Brems and then of Mountainland Applied Technology College President Clay Christensen, which raised serious ethical questions. One of the findings questioned actions by some legislative leaders.

Some may view revisiting this reported indiscretion, which may or may not have been undertaken by "two unnamed state senators," as a red herring. Instead, this offers us an opportunity to quell public mistrust by finding ways in which citizens can work together with officials to keep us on the up and up instead of allowing this cloud to continue to hang over our members.

The Utah Constitution limits the establishment of an independent enforcement commission. Only members of the Legislature have the authority and the responsibility to oversee and hold to account fellow members. Establishment of an ethics advisory board or commission, however, could provide comforting transparency to our constituents and could certainly pass constitutional muster.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, such commissions exist in some form in 39 states and have jurisdiction over the legislative branch in 33. Most commissions are composed of citizens or public officials appointed by the governor or other leaders. Twenty-four states forbid public officials from serving on ethics commissions.

Currently, an official investigation of a Utah state legislator can only be initiated when a minimum of three members from that legislative body request it. These complaints have been few and far between, as there are understandable challenges to policing our own colleagues.
Perhaps we legislators have opened ourselves up to mistrust by not finding a way for the public to help review possible ethics breaches.

Instead of taking umbrage at the suggestion of such an independent board or commission, we as legislators might take comfort by involving members of the public, ethics experts and others in this opportunity for mutual education and dialogue in the arena of ethics.

An understanding of the positive role of interest groups as advocates for the public should also be a part of the discussion.

I believe that the public and legislators alike would be well served by becoming partners in ethics reform.

---
* REP. ROZ MCGEE represents House District 28, Salt Lake City, in the Utah Legislature.

Study: Private schools don't hold edge

Education
Poor, urban students did about as well in public high schools
By Lisa Schencker
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune

Poor, urban students with similar family and economic backgrounds generally don't do any better in private high schools than in public ones, according to a Center on Education Policy study released today.

It's a finding Jack Jennings, president of the center, which is pro-public schools, said has implications for debates about voucher programs nationwide.

Utahns will vote in November whether to implement a program that would give voucher money to students who want to transfer from public to private schools, start kindergarten in private schools or low-income students who are already in private schools.

"We may be arguing about the wrong thing," Jennings said. "We should be looking at whether parents are helping kids do well in school."

According to the study, three main factors influence how well a student will do in high school: how well a student does before high school, the income and resources parents provide and parental involvement in school-related activities.

The study looked at achievement data, such as SAT scores and assessment results, for 1,003 low-income, urban students from 1988 to 2000 to reach its conclusions.

Representatives from different sides of Utah's voucher debate said they agree the argument shouldn't be about public versus private schools.

"The campaign has never been focused on one being better than the other," said Parents for Choice spokeswoman Leah Barker. "Our campaign has always been about offering parents the opportunity to choose a good education for their children."

Kim Campbell, president of the Utah Education Association, which is against vouchers, said the findings of the study are no surprise.

"I think this points out what we've been saying all along," Campbell said. "This isn't about public versus private. It's not about school choice. This is about who pays for the choice and who pays for private school enrollment."

According to the study, the only type of private schools that generally show greater achievement than public ones are Catholic holy order schools, meaning schools run by orders such as the Jesuits, but not by a diocese. Only 34 of the 1,003 students studied attended such a school. Also, students who attend independent, private high schools also tended to have higher SAT scores than those in public schools.

That finding suggests that private schools aren't any better at teaching subjects but might give students better test-taking skills or enroll students with higher IQs, according to the study.
Derek Keenan, vice president for academic affairs at the Association of Christian Schools International, said about 400 largely minority schools in his association do perform better on some national tests than students in public schools. Students at those schools are generally 12 to 14 months ahead of their peers on average nationwide, he said.

"The private school advantage is nimbleness," Keenan said. "We can move on things."
The study also found that students who went to private high schools had no more job satisfaction at age 26 than their peers who went to public high schools.

Study author Harold Wenglinsky said his findings show schools and families should focus on getting parents more involved and creating more activities and programs to support students.

"We're arguing about adult issues," Jennings said. "Let's look at kids and see what helps them do well."

lschencker@sltrib.com

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