Vouchers a real issue in guv's race

Webb: The two juniors, Jon and Scott, are both personable, reasonable, moderate politicians with fine names and great hair. But one Grand Canyon-size gulf divides them that reveals their philosophical underpinnings and provides voters a real choice.

Jon Huntsman Jr. supports school choice, particularly a modest, but significant, pilot project testing the validity of tuition tax credits. Scott Matheson Jr. by contrast, has adopted the teachers' union position on tuition tax credits: over my cold, dead body.

Huntsman is by no means a one-note candidate on education. He strongly supports increased funding for education, better pay for teachers and has laid out an economic development plan to "grow the pie," generating more and better jobs and ultimately more money for schools. But while he supports increased funding, he is also willing to look at real education reform and innovation.

Matheson also wants more money for schools, but while his education plan fiddles and tinkers, it is essentially business as usual, throwing more money at the status quo. And he doesn't really outline where he's going to get the money.

Both are friends of public education and both recognize that the vast majority of Utah's children will be educated in public schools. But here's the difference: Vote for Matheson if you want the teachers' union running public education. Vote for Huntsman if you want some real reform and innovation.

I personally support tuition tax credits precisely because public schools will benefit. Public schools are the future of our state. Private schools do well because of marketplace discipline. If they don't perform, parents simply go elsewhere. Parents having to plunk down cold, hard cash creates the dynamics and incentives for success.

Public schools need some of that discipline. Tuition tax credits will benefit public schools in two ways: First, more money. Taking a child out of public schools but leaving behind a portion of that child's funding results in more money per pupil in public schools. That basic fact is indisputable. Second, allowing families a modicum of choice adds elements of competition and market behavior that would be healthy for public schools.

I have faith in our public schools. I'm confident the system can educate our young people so they can survive and thrive in the tough, competitive, global environment out there. A modest pilot project testing the validity of tuition tax credits should not be a threat to the education establishment. If UEA leaders are convinced it will fail, then they have nothing to worry about. I think their real worry is that it will succeed.