ALPINE — D-day for the school voucher law is quickly approaching, and legislators don't want residents casting a blind vote.

Legislators have scheduled information meetings about The Parent Choice in Education Act — which was approved by the Legislature and was then overturned by referendum this past spring — almost daily until Nov. 6 when voters will determine the law's fate.

"The future is going to bring more kids and more demand on public dollars," said Rep. Greg Hughes, R-Draper, who observed one such meeting in Alpine's City Hall Saturday. "What we can do today is look forward to mitigate. If we're going to vote about vouchers, making a conscious vote is what we need to do."

About 22 people from various Utah County cities gathered Saturday to discuss the controversial law, which would provide Utah parents with a private school tuition voucher ranging from $500 to $3,000 per child, based on income.

Mark Cluff, a member of the State Board of Education, Sen. Howard Stephenson and Rep. John Dougall, R-Highland, answered questions about the law for nearly three hours.

"A private voucher system reduces the number of kids in the classroom and leaves more money for the people who choose to keep their kids in the public school system," said Cluff.

Cluff compared private school vouchers to other government-funded aid such as Pell grants, food stamps, Medicare, and the recently implemented Special Needs Scholarship.

Residents seemed most concerned about whether or not the state could hold private schools accountable and how a voucher system would affect the public school system.

Stephenson, the public education appropriations co-chair, said school vouchers will bring the benefits of a free-market economy to the education system, improving public schools through forced competition.

"I believe in families and parents and their right to choose how and where their children will be educated," he said. "To me, that's the most fundamental element of private school vouchers."

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