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Utah's top educator vows better diversity for state schools


(Photo: KUTV)
(Photo: KUTV)
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Superintendent of Utah Schools, Sydnee Dickson, made a powerful statement during the Utah State Board of Education meeting Thursday morning.

"As a white woman of privilege I don’t know what it’s like to walk in the shoes of a black young man or a black young woman or even my employees of color," she said.

She then promised to take steps to ensure that Utah's population of students of color felt supported in their schools.

Dickson promised to set up programs to help recruit and retain teachers of color, create a more inclusive work environment at the state office of education, and said she intends to establish ongoing town hall meetings with black, Latino, and Pacific Islander students.

Board member Shawn Newell, the only person of color on the Utah State Board of Education applauded the superintendent's proposals and says despite efforts in Utah to improve diversity and inclusiveness, it's always good to revisit those efforts.

Newell says despite these efforts, students of color in Utah still do not have enough role models in the classroom particularly in more diverse neighborhoods across the state, "they (neighborhoods) are becoming a more majority minority student body and there needs to be a refection of that student body within the teachers, instructors and administration," says Newell.

Beyond the Books wanted to see what diversity looked like in Utah, but the state office of education admitted, that although they are working to get accurate numbers, they currently lack vital statistics regarding the race of teachers relative to students.

However, a Salt Lake City Tribune report from 2015 pointed out that while 16% of Utah students are Latino, only 2% of teachers are. That is something Dickson says must change, "we should have a workforce that looks a lot like our student population and yet we don’t and we need to ask why," says Dickson

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