Why is it that Bernick puts quotes around the word "educate" in the first paragraph? His previous stories indicate he doesn't think much of vouchers, and that's just fine, but it makes me wonder if he is capable of writing any story about vouchers without "educating" his readers against vouchers.

Let's do what is right and vote to keep our right to a vote in how our public money is used by voting against vouchers. For those who wish to take this right away from the rest of us in terms of their children's education while retaining the right to vote in public school elections I say to you: "What right do you have to deny us a vote and to take our money for your children's education and still think you should be able to vote in public school board elections and our children's education?" If we do nothing we lose our right to a vote and we should not allow this to happen. We may understand that parents think they should be able to 1) take our money, 2) use it as they see fit, and 3) make sure we don't have a vote in how they use the money they force us to give to them in vouchers.

"We're working from the seat of our pants here..." said Hughes.

Sounds like the way this legislation passed in the first place!

Anonymous, what did you just say? Your traditional public ed writing skills belie your point, ironically. I think you tried to make a misguided statement about voucher supporters and supposed "rights" that you dispute, but your circular verbiage leaves even astute readers baffled. Nice try. Perhaps school choice would have benefited you in your formative years.

Rabbi, Anonymous's point seemed fairly clear to me. Perhaps you should have taken a few more Reading Comprehension courses, if your school offered them.

The legislature took away my vote in passing this misguided voucher program. I have my vote back now, and will use it. I only wish I could believe the thugs in the legislature will truly abort this program after it's voted down.

Here is a thought lets pass vouchers then pass SCHIP so that Private Insurance finnally has competition. LIke I here so often from Voucher supports "there is nothing wrong with competition." These two forms of legislation according to both sides will benifit children...Or are we fighting this based on Politics ?

I commend the legislative leaders for trying to drum up support for vouchers. They should have done that before they passed a piece of legislation the people did not see a need for and did not want. Now the people via the referendum process are going to have their say about vouchers. Referendums are used rarely because they are so hard to get on the ballot but when they do get on the ballot and the people speak, then the legislative leadership to learn for the people and quit pushing their agenda when the people don't want it. There's a time to lead and a time to get out of the way. They can lead all they want to now but after November 6, they need to get out of the way and respect the will of the people. I know I'm voting NO on referendum 1 but I have no hard feelings for legislative leaders trying to pass what they felt was right. I will have hard feelings though if they don't respect the vote.

Please i beg you vote no. I dont want the private school my kids go to messed up by the public school kids dumbing it down. Private schools are for the rich and the rest dont deserve to be ther so JUST VOTE NO.

One has to chuckle at the Linda and Rick Eyer�s cookie commercial promoting
private school vouchers which tells only a small part of the story. Taking three
�cookies� away and allocating the savings to reduce class size fails to tell
viewers that "all of the cookies� attending Rick and Linda Eyer�s school will
receive taxpayer funds benefiting the schools proprietors and reducing funds
available for public schools.

There was little effort by Greg Hughes and legislators of his ilk to "educate" the public before this bill was passed. They thought it would be business as usual when they passed the voucher bill (using threats and arm-twisting to get the votes) while fully knowing that the voters did not want them. As I've mentioned often, legislators such as the ones who passed this bill do not really care about voters. They care about their convention delegates and their lobbyists. I think the successful referendum caught them by surprise. They are not used to being questioned and challenged by the public on their decisions. I'm frankly glad that Mr. Hughes and legislative leadership are getting a taste of what it's like to try to actually "educate" the public. The reason they are "going by the seat of their pants" is that they are not used to having to do this.

I have often felt the Legislature was in its own world, not representing Utah's residents on many issues because they are too far to the right. The voucher issue has put that fact out in plain view. Legislators have tried to pull a fast one on Utahns with the idea of using public monies for private education, all the while giving the impression that public education does not measure up. Utahns are speaking back. We have always wanted more funding put into public education, we've wanted our teachers paid better, and our class sizes smaller. This has not happened because the Legislature refuses to find the funding. Maybe legislators will be forced to try something like finding funding once the public speaks at the ballot box to tell them their ideas of vouchers are all wet.

Hold on! Lots of inaccurate and unsupported (uneducated?) assertions here.

I am voting "YES" on the vouchers because this is Win-Win legislation.

The public school sytem gets *more* money for 5 years for each student whose parents opt-in to the vouchers.

If the private schools fail (as evidenced by mandated testing, college admissions, etc.) then it will be a vindication of the 12-layers deep bloated beauracracy we have now. But if they do better, then perhaps it will finally help people introduce some needed improvements and bloat-cutting in our school systems so that we get more for our taxpayer money.

So basically what we have here is a great opportunity to see what can be done with better parent involvement and freedom and less bloated beauracracy. There are plenty of controls in place and our public schools get extra money during the attempt.

I'm keeping my kids in public school and I strongly support this legislation. I believe it will benefit *both* public and private schools.

Please read up on the bill (warts and all) and vote "YES". This is a reasonable implementation of an idea whose time has come.