I bumped into Senator Steve Urquhart at the swearing in ceremony for Mayor Pike and St. George’s new council members, and I took the opportunity to ask Steve if he would be so kind as to sit with me for a one-on-one interview, which we did downtown at George’s Corner Restaurant last week.
Name: Stephen H. Urquhart
Place of residence: St. George
Occupation: Attorney and Utah State senator
Senate salary: $125 per day (56 sessions plus other days throughout the year – equals about 100 days)
What is the most important issue Utahns face as we head into 2014?
Each Utahn would say that would be the issue they are currently facing, but I think overall it’s education, this year and every year. That, of course, is very important for the future of the individual and also for the economic wellbeing of the state, and it happens to be one of the areas we struggle with the most.
You are on various education-related committees. Do you feel education has suffered since No Child Left Behind? And what do you feel are the biggest education-related issues currently facing Utah and the nation?
Yeah, I think education has suffered overall because of No Child Left Behind. No Child Left Behind has some laudable goals and some accountability measures that are helpful, but it has probably limited innovation in the classroom. That perspective mainly is as chair of higher education, but that does speak to public education in general, because if I had a magic wand the one thing I would change to improve the outcomes in higher education would be to improve the level of preparation of students entering our colleges and universities. But since I don’t have a magic wand, I think that the biggest issues can also be the biggest opportunities. It’s with limited resources, especially in this state, that we need to work to get more bang for the buck. How can we better improve the quality of our education, especially the outcomes, with finite dollars? Like no age in mankind before us, the tools are there, so it’s figuring out how to best marshal our resources to improve and individualize education through the tools of technology and the Internet.
What is your “pet project” this year — something you’re really pushing for, if you were to pick just one issue?
In higher education, I’m working to move the system to be performance based. Let’s fund higher education on degrees and certificates that relate to jobs and marketplace opportunities instead of funding it simply through warm bodies walking through the door. Our system, like most systems in the nation, is guilty of each year harvesting new students, new Pell grant money, new loans, and then not finishing those students. In many cases, they’re not finishing a year or even a semester. But we don’t pay a large financial price for that ‘cause we always have a new crop coming in who have dream and ambition, and we’ll collect their dreams and their tuition money, and we just need to do a much better job of finishing those students and getting them those skills and diplomas. And I think performance-based funding, with a lot of more nuanced things relating to that, can help do the job.
You are also planning to sponsor a fairly controversial bill relating to epilepsy and cannabinoids. Can you tell us about that?
There are forms of epilepsy that are incurable and largely untreatable. Dravet syndrome, for example, is a condition that, left untreated, causes mental retardation and ultimately death as the seizures fry the brain. So you try to abate the seizures as much as possible, which currently includes a cocktail of drugs heavy in barbiturates. But a pair of brothers in Colorado have been growing a hemp strain of marijuana, cultivated specifically for its concentration of cannabinoids (CBD), a.k.a. Charlotte’s Web, that have had remarkable success in relieving and even eliminating these seizures. The bill I’m sponsoring would permit interstate transportation, which is currently banned by federal law. Hopefully the FDA will allow us to have a waiver or something so we don’t have to pass a law to make this product available to the families with children who need this product.
Regarding the recent gay marriage stay, did the Supreme Court get it right, in your opinion? And was Judge Shelby right to overturn what the state’s voters had initiated in the first place?
The Supreme Court was right to stay the decision; it’s something that Judge Shelby should’ve done, assuming that they made good arguments. For one district court judge to do something so monumental without giving higher courts a chance to review it is excessive and shows a disrespect for the democratic process. As to the merits of his decision, it’s a tough question, because he has to apply Supreme Court precedent including the recent DOMA decision. That DOMA decision – I’ve had many conversations with many bright lawyers and no one is quite certain what that case stands for, including the basis for that decision. It seems to be equal protection (it seems to have been), and if that is the case it is subject to heightened scrutiny. Anytime you apply equal protection you have to apply heightened scrutiny.
How do you think the current gay marriage situation will affect the resurrection of your anti-discrimination bill?
The answer to that question seems to be changing by the day. I was thinking one thing in early December, and then a significantly different thing and now I simply just don’t know. Opponents always want to couple it with same-sex marriages, which I think they’re not coupled at all. But know, while this appeal is very much on the forefront of people’s minds, people might think that they’re helping the cause of the stay by swatting down this legislation. That’s what I fear, and I think it would be an incorrect thing – but in politics, perception and emotion sometimes carry the day instead of fact and logic.
You once sponsored a bill relating to sex education in Utah’s schools. Have you seen any of the changes you were hoping for, and how does sex education need to further change, in your view?
That bill was amazing. Treatment of that bill was amazing. It went to committee, but I couldn’t get a single committee member to move a substitute bill, which I’ve never seen before, so clearly people didn’t want to deal with that bill. However, everything that I wanted to accomplish with that bill has since been accomplished. Those were merely two things. Those were to clarify that contraceptives are part of our sex ed curriculum. The second thing is increased parental notice and opportunity to consent or opt out. So I’m happy with where our sex ed curriculum currently sits.
Is there anything we haven’t talked about that you would like to address, or that you want Utahns to know in particular?
Yeah. I try to stay focused on the things that matter most. Since I said education matters most, I’ll go back to that. I would just like Utahns to know that the legislature cares deeply about education in terms of quality, funding, appreciation for our teachers. I think that those things get lost in the shuffle at times. We have unique challenges in this state. We have way more kids per taxpayer than any other state and way less land on our property tax rolls. Add those things together and it presents challenges. But that doesn’t give anyone any excuse for not working on it and trying to improve. And I think just about everyone who opines on education issues is simply working to improve things.
THE FOLLOWING IS A SET OF QUESTIONS WE ASK EACH INTERVIEWEE IN OUR ONGOING SERIES OF EXCLUSIVE LOCAL PROFILES:
What’s your favorite food?
Steak and potatoes.
What would you like on your tombstone?
Steve, with an arrow pointing down.
What would you like to accomplish in the next year?
Improve performance funding in higher education. Go to Africa or China. Graduate my 18-year-old from high school.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Probably still overweight and less organized than I would like to be, but still passionate about the things I care about.
If you could be anyone else in the world, living or dead, who would it be and why?
I’d be me but I could play guitar like Eric Clapton and play basketball like Michael Jordan.
