I am Dr. Alan Hansen and am running for the Utah Senate seat in District 25.
I grew up in this area. I was born in Provo, and I’ve lived in Mapleton, Spanish Fork and on our family farm in Palmyra. My wife and I currently reside in Salem. I attended BYU, earning a degree in Japanese and later an MBA. Many years later I earned a PhD in higher education from Illinois State University. My wife and I have been married 48 years and have five adult children (one deceased) and 12 grandchildren (one deceased).
My career has included a stint with the National Security Agency as a Japanese linguist. I later worked as general manager for a training company in Tokyo. This led to further education and 25 years working primarily in turnaround management. In 1999, I was recruited to start up a baccalaureate degree program for a college in Illinois. From there I continued working in higher education primarily managing and developing online degree programs.
If elected, my key objectives for the constituents in my district are as follows:
Eliminate or reduce taxes on social security. Utah is one of only 10 states that tax social security benefits. Social Security was designed to help people through their retirement years, not to fill state general fund budgets as it does in Utah.
Advocate for a four-day school week. I support a four-day school week. Utah has the largest average class size in the United States. Utah budgets make reducing class size very difficult. The result is less flexibility in pedagogy and increased teacher burnout. A four-day school week would not eliminate the program, but could make it more manageable. The fifth day would be taught on a rotating basis, with students broken into three groups: (a) students earning C or better grades would not have a fifth day of class, (b) students who are struggling with grades would come in to school for tutoring focused on helping students catch up and work on homework with a reduced staff supporting their learning objectives on the fifth day, (c) students identified as accelerated (and potentially bored by the curricula) would be invited to participate in accelerated learning opportunities on the fifth day.
Improve K-12 online education. K-12 online education was expanded greatly by the sudden challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Teachers did their best but, in many cases, this meant trying to simply shift existing learning materials online. Online education works best when the curriculum is developed specifically around an online learning approach. Course development, technical support and instruction need to be developed cooperatively for the best learning outcomes. It requires a more systematic approach to course development and specific training to enable teachers to function in this environment. I advocate for significant improvement in these areas working with school administration, faculty groups, unions and the Legislature.
Preserve Utah’s wetlands. With continually increasing demands for more housing, one of the victims of these demands is the Utah wetlands. In my own area, I see load after load of dirt filling these wetlands to create more housing. I advocate requiring land swaps for developers to provide reasonable alternate wetland areas in the area. This allows owners to sell, while maintaining the wetlands that are important to our ecosystems.
Reform daylight savings time. Daylight savings time was a good idea that has had limited success for what was intended. Disrupting people’s lives for a few days twice a year is not worth the continuing cycle of disruption. I advocate either eliminating daylight savings time or maintaining daylight savings time all year round.
Ensure respect and equality for all. I believe in the dignity and rights of every individual and support legislation to guarantee this when clear evidence is provided that such legislation is needed.
Anyone seeking positions of responsibility has their own personal agenda. I have stated my agenda as clearly as I can above. In other areas I would best be classified as a moderate. I’m dissatisfied with the extreme positions of the political parties at the national level. I do believe that we need more than one-party representation in our nation and in our state. When one party controls everything, they can decide everything before it reaches a public forum. I am against that.
Visit my website at alanhansen-utstatesenate.com or contact me via email at gardensofhansen@hotmail.com.
(Alan Hansen) Alan Hansen is running for Utah Senate District 25.
Alan Hansen is running for Utah Senate District 25.
