Teacher-turned-lawmaker aims to ‘get politics out of education’ with nonpartisan push for Utah Board of Education

SALT LAKE CITY — With Utah’s legislative session beginning Tuesday, one lawmaker has his sights set on Utah’s school board, arguing that it should be nonpartisan again. 

Rep. John Arthur D-Holladay, a teacher himself, said he ran for the school board in 2024. He told KSL Tuesday he has one goal: 

“I wanna get the politics out of education,” he said. 

The proposal, HB278, aims to amend a 2020 law that required members of the Utah State Board of Education to declare their party affiliation in their elections.

Arthur said he believes politics should be left out of elections, the same way they are in classrooms. He said he didn’t like having to put his own political beliefs out there when he’s instructed as a teacher to keep politics out of the classroom.

“I never want my students to know how I personally think on any issue; I want them to think ‘What is right, given what I believe?'” he said. “I don’t want to tell a kid what to think, I’m just trying to teach them how to think.” 

Arthur said he believes making the USBE nonpartisan again will encourage the best classroom-experienced candidates to run for the position. 

“When the people at the top of the education system are elected through a partisan process, that partisanship can’t help but trickle down into the classroom, especially when those are the people who are voting for our state standards — they determine what is being taught in our schools and through what lens. That is not worthy of our children, or our educators.” 

A spokesperson for the board said as of Tuesday, its members do not have a stance on the proposal. 

As for Arthur, Utah’s Teacher of the Year in 2021, his stance on the subject is crystal. 

“We need to get back to taking politics out of our classrooms,” he said. “Period.”