Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called for a return to Utah’s core values this legislative session during his 2026 State of the State address last week.
"Tonight, I am excited to highlight some of the incredible bills that you all are working on that will significantly improve the welfare of the citizens of Utah,” Cox said.
Cox spoke on Utah’s low literacy rates, addressing the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute’s research concluding that nearly half of Utah’s third graders read below their grade level. He explained the importance of literacy, and promoted the Legislature’s goal to have all children reading strong and early. He thanked Sen. Ann Millner and Rep. Karen Peterson for focusing on this topic by introducing legislation regarding literacy reforms.
“A society that cannot read cannot reason together, and when reasoning breaks down, power rushes in to fill the void," Cox said. "If we want our children to … live free, purposeful lives, we must give them a strong foundation today.”
While Sen. Millner and Rep. Peterson's bill addressing performance funding and enrollment funding in higher education has yet to be discussed in committees, the higher education base budget bill has passed the Senate and House.
Cox also addressed social media, saying phone addiction is a problem “no single family can solve alone.” He particularly focused on a proposed bell-to-bell cell phone ban in schools, sponsored by Sen. Lincoln Fillmore and Rep. Doug Welton.
“This is about protecting the next generation's capacity to focus, to relate, to read, to think and to choose a meaningful life," Cox said. "It's about giving them their childhood back.”
Fillmore and Welton's bill has received a favorable recommendation from the Senate Education Committee.
Cox also praised agency in a digital age as “one of our most important moral responsibilities of our time.”
“We must do as Jefferson and swear eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man," Cox said, "and what social media companies do, without a doubt, is tyranny over the minds of our children and grandchildren and well, us adults too.”
He then went on to praise Utah's values amid tensions and violence nationwide.
“America desperately needs a return to virtue. You could say that America needs a return to Utah," Cox said.
