UEA Pushes Back Against State Leaders' Political Posturing

Utah Education Association President Renée Pinkney is responding to the Feb. 28, 2025 press conference by Utah Governor Spencer Cox, Senate President Stuart Adams and House Speaker Mike Schultz, calling their assertions "nothing more than political posturing that ignores the reality facing Utah’s public schools."

While the UEA acknowledges the $1,446 salary increase for teachers and the $1,000 one-time bonus for education support professionals (ESPs), it is not enough. 

The 4% Weighted Pupil Unit (WPU) increase announced is the minimum required by law to cover the cost of inflation. We continue to advocate for meaningful increases to the WPU that move beyond the status quo. It is not a meaningful investment in our students, schools, or profession.

What Utah’s public educators need and what our students deserve is real change:

• Smaller class sizes so we can give each student the attention they need.
• Behavioral and mental health resources to help manage the challenges we see in classrooms every day.
• Respect for our profession, not further micromanagement from politicians who refuse to engage with educators.
• Reduction in education legislation to help ease educator stress and workload.

Instead of addressing these critical issues, anti-public education politicians are pushing bills that strip funding from public schools, weaken our profession, and make it harder for us to do our jobs. They also passed a union-busting bill designed to silence our voices by ignoring the thousands of educators who spoke out in defense of our collective bargaining rights.

The wins they’re claiming: paid maternity leave, professional planning time, and paid student teaching came from the UEA's advocacy, in cooperation with lawmakers. UEA members fought for these policies, and we will continue to fight for the real solutions our students and educators need.

We will continue to stand together and demand the respect, resources, and investment that public education in Utah deserves.

Your voice matters. Your advocacy matters. Together, we will continue this fight.

President Pinkney provided the following statement to the media: 

"The assertions made by Utah’s leadership are nothing more than political posturing that ignores the reality facing Utah’s public schools. While a salary increase is an important recognition of the education profession, Utah’s public schools remain underfunded, classrooms are overcrowded, and educators are struggling under the weight of unsustainable workloads.

"Educators across the state are burning out due to a severe lack of support, insufficient staffing, and the growing challenges of managing student needs without adequate behavioral support resources. Instead of addressing these urgent issues, anti-public education politicians continue to funnel millions of taxpayer dollars into private religious schools through their voucher scheme and starving our public schools of the resources they desperately need.

"Today, state leaders took credit for policies that educators fought for, not politicians. Paid maternity leave, professional planning time, and paid student teaching were all championed by members of the Utah Education Association, in collaboration with not handed down by lawmakers. Meanwhile, these same politicians pushed through a union-busting bill designed to silence educator voices, ignoring thousands of pleas from Utahns who demanded the protection of teachers’ collective bargaining rights.

"If Utah’s leaders are serious about supporting educators and students, they must invest in real, long-term solutions: respectable wages, sustainable staffing levels, classroom behavioral support, and fully funding public education instead of diverting millions to private interests.

"The members of the Utah Education Association will continue to fight for the resources, respect, and real solutions our students and educators deserve."