As a Utah resident I am literally sickened by the anti-voucher campaign. Sadly, because of the millions of dollars pumped in to the anti-voucher ads by the National Teachers' Union the vote has no hope of passing even though a significant majority of the state legislature and the governor whole-heartedly endorsed the plan. The liberal unions have only their own interests at stake and have bombarded Utah residents with endless distortions and flat-out lies. Utah parents are extremely protective of their children and the unions have succeeded in scaring them out of voucher support. Our children deserve a chance at the best education possible. And parents deserve a CHOICE in that education. As long as the public education system remains socialized and tens of thousands of inept teachers are protected by self-serving unions, our children will continue to suffer in their learning. I wish everyone understood the problem as clearly as the author of this article does. Our future might be a lot brighter than it now looks.

It would be a shame if this fails. I remember when the Democratic party actually cared about the poor and working classes of this country. What's wrong with letting poor children go to school with the wealthier kids? I've actually had this discussion with a VERY liberal friend of mine and after a few drinks, the truth came out. Her explanation was that she pays good money for her children to go to a private school and she doesn't want those kind of kids disrupting her childrens education! I was shocked to say the least! I couldn't convince her that many of these poor children are good kids who are just like any other kids, they just need a good education like her children are getting.
I understand the teachers unions position. Maybe everyone could compromise and agree to pay the teachers at private schools union wages and that way the teachers unions wouldn't be hurt by this. If this doesn't pass, maybe we could make a law that says, All public school teachers must send their children to public schools. In some cities, up to 40% of public school teachers send their children to private schools. I wonder why? Actually, I think the truth is this; Right now the liberals control what our children are being taught. After WWII, the returning soldiers used the G.I. Bill to get education and training. They could go to just about any school they wanted. After training and schooling, many of them got good paying jobs, ( and started paying lot's of taxes). Harry Truman commented to an associate, " Look what we did! We turned them all into Republicans!" Liberals haven't forgotten this. These poor children are their future power base. Keep them down, tell them everyone is against them, and fill their heads full of mis-information. Slavery was done away with about 150 years ago, I guess liberals just haven't gotten the word yet!

But Dan Gaffney, you don't see it: For years, private schools have bragged about the academic achievements of their students relative to public schools. And they have done so knowing full well that they had an unfair advantage. What vouchers will do is literally allow parents to put their money where the private educators' mouths have been, challenging the private schools to demonstrate if their educational methods truly are superior. In the process, it will level the field, bringing private school scores down a bit, and raising public schools achievement levels. The monopoly will be broken and both private and public educators will actually need to compete for the first time. And for those worried about the inability of public schools to compete, don't sweat it. They will be not be judged apples to apples with private schools. There will be a curve built in, taking into account some of the obstacles public schools must overcome, such as the selectivity permitted to private schools.

Where I live in Hilton Head, SC, we have seen consitant public school improvement over the last 10 years. The initial catalyst was the attempt to build a Charter School to help give some sense of choice to parents. The Charter School never materialized, but it acted as a motivating factor. The improvement in our schools has been largely caused by non-union teachers and administrators working within schools that are site based in their management as opposed to district run. From the top down, they have been focused on improvement and developing learning strategies for all levels of students with significant input from teachers and parents. We have created schools within schools so there is in fact real "choice" for parents within the public school system. Our school populations are now 25-30% Latino and they are effectively meeting the challenges of a changing school population and the additional needs that have to be met.

An amazing thing has happened; the morale, energy level, and desire to continue improving all keep building. Newsweek just ranked our high school in the top 500 in the nation. Parents are regularly making the choice to take their kids out of the private schools and send them to our public schools. I am not sure what vouchers would do to our area now, but they may act as the catalyst in other areas the same way the threat of the Charter School did to help initiate change in our schools.

School choice is all about involvement. The major difference between public and private is not the teachers or the system but the fact that parents who send their kids to private schools expect results. When they do not get those results they do not blame teachers or the school they get involved with their kids. Parents that care, parents that expect success are the difference. Just go to a school board hearing for a public school and see are the crying that is done blaming everyone except them or the children. Everyone has to step up to the plate to succeed. Go to any private school and it is more like a community where everyone is involved from the teachers to the students to the parents. That is the reason for success.

gaffney-

What 20% are you worried about? The lowest 20% in terms of IQ? The lowest 20% in terms of attention span? The lowest 20% in terms of involved parents? The lowest 20% in terms of economics?

We know that many rich people put their children (despite low IQ/attention span/uninvolved parents) into private schools. I've seen no evidence that the capacity of the students entering private schools is higher than of those entering public schools. The great separation is economics. Certainly, private schools turn down people for a myriad of reasons. Some private schools don't take the mentally handicapped, rowdy, etc. children. On the other hand other private schools specialize in teaching those children. However, economics is BY FAR the #1 reason students are turned down at private schools. This bill significantly diminishes that problem in Utah.

Our goal should not be to help public schools compete or to save teachers' jobs (neither of which would be hurt by this referendum). We are trying to educate the children of America. When you start from that premise, there are absolutely NO good arguments against this referendum. Your 20% claim is nonsensical.

Will the private schools have to take the same standard tests that public schools are forced to give- or will it just be assumed that the private schools are succesful?

Will the private schools have to offer education to special ed students, kids with criminal records, kids from lazy dysfunctional households, drug additcts, pregnat teenagers, etc...?

How much time during the school day will be dedicated to religious indoctrination versus the reason and logic of academics?

How much incorrect information will be fed into kids to abide by religous doctrine. I can just imagine the science classes- "God created everything- class dismissed" oh wait a minute this is Utah "Joseph Smith the failed treasure hunter and prohet created everything- class dismissed"

Excellent piece. Because public-school teachers work for taxpayers and tout their tireless and thankless dedication to children, we wrongly assume that they have the best interest of parents and children. Like everyone else, teachers want to protect their jobs. That's their major concern. Competition would make their jobs less secure and shine a light on public school standards. Poor standards and bad teachers wouldn't be able to hide behind the monolithic bureaucracy any more. I wish I had been given the opportunity to attend private school.

Take a look at every state budget and you will find that far too many governors are no longer the most powerful executive in the state.... When more than 50% of a budget goes to education and the governor doesn't control that budget.... you can figure it out from there.

I recall that in the Golden Age of Greece, pupils paid the indivdual teacher whom they thought
would provide the best education. That system produced an intellectial quantum leap in knowledge.

gaffney-

What 20% are you worried about? The lowest 20% in terms of IQ? The lowest 20% in terms of attention span? The lowest 20% in terms of involved parents? The lowest 20% in terms of economics?
The 20% that are "turnips". They don't want to be there. They don't want to learn and they disrupt the class. All "turnips" have parents /guardians that are "turnips" and disrupt the learning process. Give me a class of kids of any educational ability that want to learn/or have parents that want them to learn and there would be no debate.
The 20% affect the learning of those that are at risk of being swayed by the "turnips". This is where vouchers come into play.
Why don't you citizens simply elect people that will overthrow this mess called public education. In a free competitive environment the public school teacher will prevail because most are more qualified to teach. You have it wrong if you think teachers don't want to compete. They already have jobs the private school teacher can't get because they are more qualified.
I have heard no one address our responsibility of educating the turnips. Who pays? If you say the parents of the turnips you still don't get it.
All you people want to do is run away from the system and ignore the bottom of the barrel. I guess out of sight out of mind, like Darfur.

Interesting article, however, this is a local issue with local dynamics that may be difficult for an outsider (and some residents) to comprehend. While I do not agree with much of what the NEA does, I welcome the monetary support they offered to counter the millions that had been spent in favor of vouchers. Still, even without any anti-voucher advertising, I doubt that getting vouchers passed by popular vote would have been a cake walk, which is why voucher supporters were so livid when the Referendum went on the ballot.

The Utah Legislature is not a truly representative organization -- the political structure and nominating procedures here guarantee that. Given the fact that vouchers only passed the Legislature by the slimmest of margins and only after much backdoor threatening, it should have shown that there was not much political will for vouchers in this state.

[Gov. Huntsman (John Boy) signed it anyway, still warm from the printer. While it was not the only poorly thought out move he has made in his first term in office (Utah: life elevated), it may guarantee this is his last term in office. He not only angered voucher opponents, most significantly, he has angered voucher proponents by his subsequent back-peddling. Voucher people have been coming out in droves to local caucus meetings the last couple of election cycles and have gotten themselves elected as party delegates. They will, no doubt, blame him for its failure and will make every effort to kill his re-election bid in Convention.]

As for vouchers, personally, I am opposed to them. We already have school choice in Utah. You either choose to work with Public Education and try to fix its flaws, or you put your kids in private school or home school them.

Within Public Education in the State of Utah, parents have had the choice, for decades, of taking their kids to any school (space permitting) they felt might be more appropriate for their child. Recently, many charter schools have been created to provide further options for parents. (My two oldest kids attend a charter high school. Of my two younger children, twins, one goes to a gifted and talented magnet school and the other is assigned to a special education unit at another nearby school. My older children attended the local elementary school which, though a year round Title I school with a majority immigrant population in a spartan, aging building with 7 relocateable units, was one of the best schools in the District, academically.)

Opting out of public education does not obviate one's responsibility to support public education. Taxes ought not be paid with the expectation of equivalent return, nor ought we to expect a refund for services we choose not to accept. If the logic of the school voucher and tax-credit supporters was applied across the board, government would collapse. Maybe the hard core libertarians and anarchists would like that, but I don't think it would seem particularly practical for the rest of us.

In a state that is so dominated by a single religion, the separation of Church and State is a concept that is deeply entrenched, in fact, it was a requirement for statehood (to the extent that members of the Mormon church were "encouraged" to distribute themselves evenly between the Republican and Democratic parties, something that probably needs to be done again). The Utah Constitution clearly states that the State government will not support religious schools. The voucher law, if implemented, would be challenged in court and would likely be found unconstitutional.

The private schools in Pinellas County, Florida (the good ones) will not accept vouchers. They also don't pay their teachers well; I've known many who've left for public school or just left the profession. When you send your ill-mannered, self-centered brats to school, what do you expect? These monsters can wreck a classroom and nothing much can be done as the parents will threaten to sue or worse. My former district offers programs that are the envy of the country. We have an International Baccalaurate Program that regularly siphons kids from the best private schools, but only if they qualify. We have an economics education program that my cousin has told me is better than anything offered in his upper middle class city in Georgia. We have extra tutoring for at-risk kids, fundamental programs that are strict, "back to basics" curricula, programs for fine arts education, criminal justice, a medical magnet and all done with less and less money from the state. Sure, there are problems but we don't expel them like the private schools; we get them counseling, alternative programs or even alternative schools if needed. Teachers are not the enemy; they are there every day (sometimes into the night) for the kids. We don't do it for the money; a person with the same education almost always earns more money. Teachers don't deserve the abuse dumped on us. Reserve that for legislatures that underfund education, pre-natal care for young, single women and that egotistical moron, John Stossel.