The Utah State Board of Education re-elected its same chairman and vice-chair Tuesday night — but voted to eliminate a third leadership position, effectively ousting the only conservative voice from its governance team.
“I disagree that we are dysfunctional because we are diverse,” said Alisa Ellis, who was cut out from her post as second vice-chair.
The board voted 8-7 to get rid of that title and move to a two-person leadership model instead, reverting to the structure it had before 2015. Ellis, a proponent of local control who has railed against new science standards for including too heavy an emphasis on climate change and evolution “as a fact and not a theory,” will now return to being a regular member in January.