Posted on 10/09/2007 8:33:14 AM PDT by vadum
No one says, “As goes Utah, so goes the nation,” but what happens over the next month in the Beehive State may well affect the prospects for education reform nationwide. Last February, Utah’s Republican Gov. John Huntsman signed into law an education voucher bill that promised to help the parents of Utah’s 512,000 public school students send their children to the school of their choice—public or private. The Parent Choice in Education Act was subsequently challenged and a referendum has put the issue before the state’s voters on November 6. A majority vote is needed to uphold school choice.
It’s estimated that the average voucher ($500 to $3,000 per child, depending on family income) will be less than one third of Utah’s per pupil expenditure in the public schools ($7,100). But when Utah parents use a voucher for private schooling, the state’s public school systems will still get to keep, for another five years, most of the state money that would otherwise go for the child’s public school education. Talk about having your cake and eating it, too. Still, as more Utah children are educated for less than one third the cost of public education, it could save state taxpayers more than $1 billion over 13 years.
Naturally, the teacher unions and other liberal interest groups are out in full force to repeal the measure by defeating the referendum. The NEA has funneled $1.5 million to Utah...and state and local NEA unions from Colorado and Wyoming to Ohio and Maine have contributed thousands more. A consortium called Utahans for Public Schools has added the political muscle of the Utah PTA, the ACLU and the local NAACP chapter to attack school choice. Radio and TV ads have been airing across the state for months......
(also referenced at http://www.capitalresearch.org/news/news.html?id=532)
(Excerpt) Read more at humanevents.com ...
AMEN!
Maybe they should ban the schools from unionizing or lobbying. Does any state do this?
The 'school of thought' these days by public educators is about as far away as from teaching the basics to kids as it can get.
SO, with one of the highest per capita dollars per student, why is it that more money doesn't increase student performance and graduation rates?
Actually, as a homeschooling parent, I found that a philosophy of education self-taught course consisting of reading JT Gatto, John Holt, Ellyn Davis, Rudolph Flesch, Charlotte Iserbyt, Beverly Eakman, Grace Lewellyn, Linda Dobson, Raymond & Dorothy Moore and others was invaluable for planning the education of my kid.
I don’t think private schools actually cost 1/3 of the amount public schools do. I think that the vouchers for private schools are for 1/3 the cost of edu/cating a stu3 dent in the public schools. The additional 2/3 will probably need to be made up in tuition paid by the parents, or some other financial aid.
2 concerns:
There will be many strange private schools popping up, that will be subsidized by taxpayer dollars. (Think muslim fundamentalist schools or wiccan schools)
Poor children will not have the money to pay the additional tuition, and will only have an option to attend public schools, which might be pretty awful once all the other students leave. (although I think this is not such an issue in Utah, because it is smaller and more homogeneous than some larger states)
Note that if you join the PTA at your children's public schools half of the money goes to the state and national PTA to fund activities like this.
I suspect an influential number of people who private school their kids don't want the influx of students from poor and dysfunctional areas of their city. Other people in middle-class areas already have good public schools and don't have any incentive to change the system. These are particularly susceptible to scare tactics about these decent schools losing funding through a voucher program.
You’re right that regulatory burdens will multiply like vermin, but for every government regulation, there’s probably a sly way around it. For instance, perhaps voucher money could pay for a private tutor for a homeschooling co-op while leaving its instructional goals intact.
Yes, we're thinking about buying the motto "Live Free or Die" from NH.
:)
Labor unions have devolved into nothing more than parasitic big businesses.
This is as true of teachers unions as it is of the UAW, Teamsters and others.
Their primary interest and objective is to perpetuate and enhance their own existence.
They are greedy and hunger for power without much concern for the well being of the entities they feed on.
In this case they feed on the school systems, the students, and the teachers.
They take while everyone else gives.
Teachers unions have found a way to put taxpayers money into their own pockets.
Teachers unions are suffocating the education of children just as the UAW has suffocated the US auto industry.
Well meaning teachers that support teachers unions are dupes who sacrifice their ideals to keep fat cat union officials fat and in power at the expense of the students and the taxpayers.
Those who really care about educating children will be on the front lines pushing for vouchers and school choice instead of following the marching orders of union bosses.
Good teachers will always have a job but their union bosses only have a job as long as they can keep the students and the teachers on the plantation.
Thanks very much for posting this article. I’m extremely interested in school choice news.
Utah’s legislature is admirable. Seriously. I recall that even in the early Nineties, you still saw New Hampshire in that role but it slipped when it was invaded by liberal refugees from Massachusetts. You know, those locusts always swarm (hint: repel liberal hordes fleeing the Land of Kali).
Bad news for voucher proponents. Teacher union money is running a lot of ads here against vouchers, and seem to be winning. Latest poll shows 49% opposed to vouchers and another 11% maybe opposed. Unfortunate, since our public schools are below average here in Utah. Our Republican governor, who is, at best, a timid conservative, has backed off from his initial support and is currently sitting on the fence on this issue.
My wife works in a private Catholic school. I believe that the cost per student in close to 7,000/year. I know I pay far more than 2500/year to send my kids to Catholic school. I know there are still parish schools around that are less, but tuition for parochial schools is not inexpensive.
Must’ve had a bad teacher/school. I loved my master’s-level philosophy of education classes. Really helped me understand the foundation of education....
IIRC, they spent over 12 million in CA on their disinformation campaign to kill prop 174 in 1993.
Easy logic here -
the Unions oppose giving the parents a choice because they know that their “product” will NOT BE CHOSEN. So, by their vehement opposition, they are stating that their product is inferior.
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