Monica Bangerter Wilbur
Monica Bangerter Wilbur (Republican Party) ran for election to the Utah State Board of Education to represent District 10. She lost in the Republican primary on June 25, 2024.
Wilbur completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Monica Bangerter Wilbur earned a B.S. in English from the University of Utah. Her career experience includes working as a high school English teacher, debate coach, web and technical writer, and content developer.[1] Wilbur has been affiliated with HigherGround.work.[2]
Elections
2024
See also: Utah State Board of Education election, 2024
General election
General election for Utah State Board of Education District 10
Incumbent Matt Hymas defeated Deborah L. Gatrell in the general election for Utah State Board of Education District 10 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Matt Hymas (R) | 68.1 | 62,811 | |
| Deborah L. Gatrell (D) | 31.9 | 29,373 | ||
| Total votes: 92,184 | ||||
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Democratic primary election
The Democratic primary election was canceled. Deborah L. Gatrell advanced from the Democratic primary for Utah State Board of Education District 10.
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Utah State Board of Education District 10
Incumbent Matt Hymas defeated Monica Bangerter Wilbur in the Republican primary for Utah State Board of Education District 10 on June 25, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Matt Hymas | 52.0 | 10,765 | |
| Monica Bangerter Wilbur | 48.0 | 9,955 | ||
| Total votes: 20,720 | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Camille Knudson (R)
Democratic convention
Democratic convention for Utah State Board of Education District 10
Deborah L. Gatrell advanced from the Democratic convention for Utah State Board of Education District 10 on April 27, 2024.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | Deborah L. Gatrell (D) | |
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Republican convention
Republican Convention for Utah State Board of Education District 10
The following candidates advanced in the ranked-choice voting election: Matt Hymas in round 2 , and Monica Bangerter Wilbur in round 2 . The results of Round are displayed below. To see the results of other rounds, use the dropdown menu above to select a round and the table will update.
| Total votes: 209 |
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Endorsements
To view Wilbur's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here. Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Wilbur in this election.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Monica Bangerter Wilbur completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Wilbur's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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The topic of education is close to my heart & mind. I've spent thousands of hours researching, writing & discussing policies that impact Utah's children, families, and teachers, while studying the state board and Utah's education system in depth.
My main focus on the board is to prioritize objective, time-tested academics first.
Utah spending on public education is at an all-time high of $7.3 billion, and yet our students’ academic scores keep sinking lower & lower.
We must stop throwing money & resources at widely promoted & deeply flawed approaches, such as intrusive social emotional surveys & lessons, sexualized content, labeling kids according to identity politics, trauma-informed practices, and the excessive & obsessive use of technology.
We’ve let national & global systems decide what happens in our local classrooms. This is not okay! If we care about the best interests of Utah’s families, their children, and the future, we must make a change. Bad top-down policies are putting Utah’s schools on a unacceptable downward trajectory.
We must respect conscience in school, restore schools' proper & limited role, and protect children from exploitation. Education must refocus on foundational truths that have made America the hope & light of the free world.- PRIORITIZE FOUNDATIONAL ACADEMICS FIRST
Utah spending on public education is at an all-time high of $7.3 billion, and yet our students’ academic scores keep sinking lower & lower.
We must stop throwing money & resources at widely promoted & deeply flawed approaches, such as intrusive social emotional surveys & lessons, sexualized content, labeling kids according to identity politics, trauma-informed practices, and the excessive & obsessive use of technology.
With a strong focus on time-tested, traditional methods & content to teach reading, writing, arithmetic, history, and science, our children will be prepared to think and act wisely based on objective & self-evident truths. - RESTORE SCHOOLS’ PROPER ROLE No school, no matter how well meaning its programs & people, can take the place of a healthy family—families are the fundamental unit of all free and civilized societies, and Utah should be leading the way. Schools are being transformed into social welfare service centers, which incentivize dependency mindsets & habits in our children & families and lead to costly, unsustainable programs that burden all taxpayers. Less is more! Schools must be schools, with a streamlined focus on scholastic achievement and merit. Asking schools to do too much is asking for increased teacher burnout, reduced parental involvement, and diminished student privacy.
- RESPECT CONSCIENCE & PROTECT KIDS FROM EXPLOITATION There are too many bureaucrats and unaccountable third-parties micromanaging and dictating what happens in the classroom. Our children are a captive audience in the culture wars being fought & taught in the schools. Parents must know that their children don’t have to check their consciences at the school door. Children shouldn't have to violate their consciences as a condition of receiving a public education. The state should protect children from being used to promote global, national, or local agendas, fill workforce quotas, solve for real or manufactured societal problems, or lobby or agitate as activists for causes inside or outside of school.
My education policy work centers on respecting conscience and religious belief, and the urgent need to: demonstrate moral courage in education spaces; seek hard truths over easy excuses; think originally; act unconventionally; use language precisely; challenge systemic assumptions; and stand up for American values and proven principles of liberty, honesty, trust, ingenuity, dignity, integrity, and humility.
Common Sense, by Thomas Paine
Elected officials should always represent themselves truthfully and transparently to their constituents and the public at large. This is the only way that that elected official's mandate to act on behalf of those constituents is legitimized.
The faithful discharge of these duties must always reflect that member's oath of office to "support, obey, and defend" the Constitution.
What government pays for, government controls, so the less it pays for, and takes to pay for it, the better. The state must be accountable to the people for wise spending, and limit its functions to only those which are essential to its proper operation.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign website
Wilbur’s campaign website stated the following:
| “ |
Families, teachers, and taxpayers all benefit from boundaries that bring us back to basics in Utah’s classrooms and return children as the focus of Utah’s education system PRIORITIZE ACADEMICS FIRST We must stop throwing money & resources at widely promoted & deeply flawed approaches, such as intrusive social emotional surveys & lessons, sexualized content, labeling kids according to identity politics, trauma-informed practices, and the excessive & obsessive use of technology. With a strong focus on time-tested, traditional methods & content to teach reading, writing, arithmetic, history, and science, our children will be prepared to think and act wisely based on objective & self-evident truths. RESPECT CONSCIENCE IN SCHOOL Students need to know they can act on their sincerely-held internal sense of right and wrong without fear of punishment. 53G-10-205 is a wonderful law that protects children from being complicit in their own indoctrination, and respect parents’ rights to act upon their own conscience and belief on behalf of their children. RESTORE SCHOOLS’ PROPER ROLE Schools are being transformed into social welfare service centers, which incentivize dependency mindsets & habits in our children & families and lead to costly, unsustainable programs that burden all taxpayers. Less is more! Schools must be schools, with a streamlined focus on scholastic achievement and merit. Asking schools to do too much is asking for increased teacher burnout, reduced parental involvement, and diminished student privacy. PROTECT KIDS FROM EXPLOITATION A child’s education should not be a means to somebody else’s ends— it should be the end, in and of itself. The state should protect children from being used to promote global, national, or local agendas, fill workforce quotas, solve for real or manufactured societal problems, or lobby or agitate as activists for causes inside or outside of school.[3] |
” |
| —Monica Bangerter Wilbur’s campaign website (2024)[4] | ||
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Monica Bangerter Wilbur, State Board 10, "About," accessed March 10, 2024
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on March 15, 2024
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Monica Bangerter Wilbur, State Board 10, “Issues,” accessed March 10, 2024
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