Voucher fight may creep into session

When 60 percent of Utahns voted down the Legislature's private school voucher law in November, there was much talk about how the 2008 Legislature would react.

Vengeful?

Remorseful?

Indifferent?

It's still only one week into the 45-day general session, but there are indications that while the GOP legislators who approved vouchers (all Democrats voted against it) are going to fund public education and help teachers a great deal, there are lingering feelings.

On the one hand, if legislators give teachers another $2,500 raise next year, as they did this year, then the average teachers' salary of $39,000 a year will have gone up by 13 percent over two years — very healthy raises.

On the other hand, several bills in the 2008 Legislature may be coming because of the bitter voucher ballot fight last November.

Rep. John Dougall, R-Highland, has introduced a bill that would require all 29 counties to post their election results on their Web sites and allow the Utah Elections Office to mail voter information pamphlets to every Utah household. It would also require that the office include in the referendum voter pamphlet a copy of the law that citizens will vote on — either to approve that law or strike it down.

Of course, Utahns struck down the Legislature's voucher law last November.

And all during the debate — which saw a record $8 million spent for and against vouchers in expensive media and information campaigns — voucher proponents kept urging Utahns to just read the voucher bill.

Pro-voucher legislators also asked voters to read the voucher bill in the privately funded town hall meetings they held across the state.

Most voters probably didn't read the voucher bill, even though it was available (as are all bills) on the Legislature's Web site.

"I don't know" if the voucher vote would have turned out differently if every Utah household had had a written copy of the voucher bill, Dougall said — as his bill would provide for. But, he added, it just makes sense that any future voter information pamphlets on a referendum carry the actual law.

Dougall said that when a Utah constitutional is change on the ballot, the state's voter pamphlet carries a copy of that change — word for word.

And when an initiative is on the ballot, the wording of that initiative is also included in the pamphlet.