Opponents of school choice argue that it will produce less racially and socially diverse schools. But because students are assigned to public schools based on where they live, and because residential patterns reflect income, most of Utah's public schools are either mostly wealthy and white or mostly nonwealthy and nonwhite. Utah's Office of Education reports that the state's private schools — which are operating one-third below full enrollment — have a higher percentage of nonwhites than do public schools.

The voucher program will enable demand for private schools to match the supply. A privately funded scholarship program, Children First Utah, for low-income pupils can support only 15 percent of applicants. Although most of the total value of the new voucher program will go to low-income families, the program amounts to a reduced government subsidy for such families — at most $3,000 rather than more than $7,500 per pupil.

Public filings showed that by September the National Education Association, the megalobbyist for the public education near-monopoly, had already spent $1.5 million to support repeal of the voucher program. The Wall Street Journal reports that the NEA has approved expenditures of up to $3 million. Public filings in September showed that teachers unions in Maine, Colorado, Arizona and Wyoming had contributed to the fight against choice. Probably other states' unions will be identified in the next reports.

Intellectually bankrupt but flush with cash, the teachers unions continue to push their threadbare arguments, undeterred by the fact that Utah's vouchers will increase per-pupil spending and will lower class sizes in public schools. Why the perverse perseverance? There are two large, banal reasons — fear of competition and desire for the maximum number of dues-paying public-school teachers.

Although Utah is among the reddest of states — the most emphatically Republican in six of the last eight presidential elections — it is among the most supportive states regarding public education: It has the fifth-highest proportion of K through 12 students in public schools. (Even its home-schooled children outnumber the children in private schools.) Nevertheless, on Tuesday Utah voters can strike a reverberating blow against the idea that education should remain the most important sector of American life shielded from the improving force of competition.

What will defenders of that idea — former liberals, now known as progressives — call themselves next? Surely not "pro-choice."

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George Will's e-mail address is georgewill@washpost.com.