Research indicates they don't improve student performance

Editor's note: In an effort to cut through the emotional rhetoric surrounding the voucher issue, we solicited a leader on each side to submit their best arguments, then allowed them to rebut one another. Their arguments — and rebuttals — appear in the related links here.

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Most Utah voters realize the wisdom of doing everything possible to make Utah's public schools even stronger. Consider the following five points of analysis showing details of Utah's fundamentally flawed voucher law with its many loopholes and unanswered questions:

The voucher law provides little accountability

The voucher law provides no significant oversight of schools accepting voucher students. They may: discriminate against students based on religion, ability to pay, disabilities and English proficiency; avoid any performance audit requirements and financial reporting requirements; choose not to dismiss teachers for criminal conduct; hire teachers who do not have a college degree or teachers who are not licensed; ignore coursework and attendance standards public schools are required to meet. Voucher schools are not even required to be accredited, as are public schools.

Voucher schools lack availability

Most everyday Utah families would not be able to access voucher schools. According to the Office of Legislative Fiscal Analyst voucher school tuitions average $8,000 per child per year. For a family with four children, the $24,000 in additional tuition would make voucher schools clearly unaffordable. Even if one goes to a school with lower tuition fees it is unlikely low-income families would be able to pay the fee, provide transportation and lunch, and pay other private school costs even if they received the maximum $3,000 voucher.

As compared to 987 public and charter schools, only 138 private schools operate in all of Utah. Of the 138 private schools, only 75 are eligible to — or are choosing to — accept vouchers. The National Center for Education Statistics lists 56 "regular" private elementary and secondary schools in Utah. In fact, more than half the counties in Utah have no private schools at all.

Vouchers will have high costs for the taxpayer

Based on projections provided by the official "Impartial Analysis" in the Utah Voter Guide, vouchers would cost money — not save money as some proponents suggest. By the 12th year of the voucher experiment, subsidizing voucher schools would cost the state nearly $71 million a year. Over a 13-year period, vouchers would cost the state $429 million.