Board tackles rules for vouchers

Utah Board of Education leaders took their first crack Wednesday at hammering out rules for implementing Utah's new $9.2 million private school voucher law — the most wide-ranging and expensive of its kind in the country.

Those rules will need to detail myriad aspects, including telling parents how their children can qualify for the money if they choose to send them to a private school and how the Utah Office of Education can patrol the program to ensure public schools don't suffer.

"We tried to give equal concern to the choice — that is clearly the prime directive of this bill — but also public accountability," said Larry Shumway, state director of educator quality. "Our direction as we've done this was to write a rule that implements the state statute in an honorable way."

The Parents for Choice in Education Act provides Utah families a private school tuition voucher ranging from $500 to $3,000 per student, scaled to income based on who qualifies for federal reduced-price school lunch.

Board members voted Wednesday to continue working on the implementation rules until their April meeting. Final implementation is due by May.

Even as those rules are being formed, however, the future of the voucher law may be a little shaky.

Last week, Utahns for Public Schools, a newly formed group comprised of members of the Utah Education Association, Utah School Boards Association, NAACP, Utah PTA, filed for a referendum petition that could land a final decision on vouchers in the hands of voters in the 2008 general election.

The referendum is only the first move in possibly a series of attacks on the new voucher law, including possible legal action alleging the voucher law is unconstitutional. To use public money to further private education violates the Constitution, the group claims.

Even before the bill was signed into law this session, state education leaders started working on rules of implementation. They will also hire two staff members this month to oversee the program.

A second supplemental voucher bill that surfaced in the last days of the Legislature was signed into law Tuesday, giving the Utah Office of Education an additional $100,000 to run the voucher program. HB174 also requires teachers at private schools that accept vouchers to have background checks and requires the state to perform an audit of the program in five years.

The draft rules detail how the Utah Office of Education can audit families and private schools who apply for voucher use, a provision Shumway said was a top priority for state leaders. Under the legislation and the board's drafted rules, students become eligible for an education voucher if the student:

• Has a parent who resides in Utah

• Is school age