Mohamed Baayd // Democrat // Salt Lake City School Board District 5

 

  • How have the arts, culture, and/or humanities impacted your life?
    • As an immigrant from Morocco to United Stated, I have had the privilege of living in different states where I was exposed to different cultures that shaped my journey in America from August 25th of 1999 to president. the salad bowl of cultures is what is making America the dreamland, even though we are going through very rough patches nowadays, unity of cultures is what is going to resolve. It is already happening regardless of the resistance of very small minority groups.
  • Utah's humanities and arts employ 123,000 Utahns, provide $4.4 billion in earnings, and $13.2 billion in sales. This is a larger economic impact than agriculture, mining, and real estate. Do you consider the arts and cultural sector an economic driver in Utah?
    • Yes
  • Fiscally responsible government investment in the arts and humanities (including humanities and arts education) means to me:
    • To me, this means, the government will need to pay more attention to arts and humanities and not just big corporations that only exploit the working-class families, who are the backbone of every society in the world, with slim to none contribution to arts and humanities that is taking care of people from all walks of life.
  • I support the following items:
    • Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program which puts one arts specialist in most elementary schools
    • POPS (Professional Outreach Program in the Schools) which sends 13 professional arts organizations to all UT school districts
    • iSEE (Informal Science Educational Enhancement) which sends 10 professional science, zoological, and natural history organizations to all UT school districts
    • 7-12 Students should have increased exposure to arts and humanities education
    • K-6 Students should have increased exposure to arts and humanities education
    • Credit requirements for participation in the arts and humanities should be increased
    • Working to increase funding for arts and humanities education.
    • Increasing funding for humanities and social sciences education with property tax
    • Increasing funding for arts education with property tax
  • Anything else we should know about you?
    • My name is Mohamed, I am an immigrant, black, Veteran, husband, father, and son. I came from very humbling circumstances in Morocco, I started my life in America from ground up with $400 in my pocket. While in Morocco, with very little, I pushed my self to earn an associate degree in English and Arabic literature, while in the US I went further by getting a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology Sociocultural emphasis, and masters in Human Resources Management. I am the first in my family's generation to get a bachelor's degree let alone a masters degree. You can see from my journey how much I cherish education because I firmly believe in its power to shape humanity’s future. This is why I want to run for this office in particular.