The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People strongly opposes Utah's decision to implement a broad voucher program that allows traditional public school students to attend private schools.

The NAACP is opposed to the voucher law for the following reasons:

Over the next decade, approximately $300 million in public funds will be directed to private education facilities at the expense of public education.

Private institutions are not held to the same performance and assessment standards as public schools under federal No Child Left Behind guidelines.

Public resources will be used to finance private industry.

State funds should be used to address resource equity, teacher recruitment and support, class overcrowding and low per-pupil expenditures in public education instead of supporting private vouchers.

"Voucher program expansion threatens to solidify the abandonment of public schools while leaving behind the majority of low-income students of color," said NAACP National Education Director Michael T.S. Wotorson. "In fact, the majority of these programs offer little or no substantive educational assistance to students with limited English proficiency or those with special needs."

The NAACP vigorously resists any measure that results in unequal treatment of poor and minority children in public education. The NAACP is also committed to fostering the multiple benefits our nation obtains through increasing racial and ethnic diversity.

The NAACP National Education Department is calling on the Utah Legislature to hold a special legislative session to reconsider the law and convene a commission of citizens and educational practitioners to make recommendations about implementation of the law and its regulation.

Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization. Its members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.

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Jeanetta Williams is the president of the NAACP Salt Lake Branch.