Reader comments
Vouchers likely to play big role in District 8

Way to try to distance yourself from Buttars and Bush.

I said it before and I'll say it again.

Anyone that voted for vouchers is NEVER going to get my vote.

That is a message that needs to be sent loud and clear because you know there is some clown writing up his/her new voucher bill right now!

I suspect that miss Morgan would have polled all of her constituents before casting this vote and every other vote in the house.

Vouchers were all the rage last year. It wasnt until the Voucher bill was past that the UEA made the issue public enemy number 1.

Something has got to be done about the failing grades our schools, Teachers ad administrators are getting in educating our children. We must consider all alternatives or we will be left with nothing but a substandard system with no hope of improvement.

Just because the majority doesnt support an Idea it doesnt mean the idea is wrong. It might mean the public is ill informed or lack the knowledge to make an educated decission.

Scare tactics of the democrats seem to be driving public policy. When the only solution they come up with is to throw money at a failing system then we should change the system before bankrupting families to prop it up.

Vouchers, at least in the incarnation being peddled by our state legislature and their special interest lackey--Parents for Choice in Education, amounts to nothing more than a gigantic tax give-away to private business. It is nothing more than a scam that Utahn's so easily fall victim to. I didn't have to have the UEA to tell me that, either, since any reasonable person can figure that out.

Lets call Vouchers what they really are, welfare for the wealthy. The wealthy are the only ones that would be able to take advantage of vouchers and every taxpayer would be paying for it. This had nothing to do with benefitting education or kids. It was all about some , not all, wealthy people wanting a tax rebate for sending their kids to private schools. Ultimate greed.

Walker did not listen to her constituents instead she listened to special interests with deep pockets. The voters need to respond by voting her out.

Voucher for the wealthy? You never read the law did you. You just drank the union kool aid. The "wealthy" could only qualify for a $500 voucher. Now you don't really think $500 would be the tipping point for a "wealthy" person to choose private school do you? Not only that, but if they did take that $500 that left $7000 in the system for the children of uninformed people such as yourself. Thank you, union, for taking away the choice of non-wealthy people to choose how they would like to educate their child with just a fraction of the money it costs for the public schools to do it.

This wasn't the teacher Union who defeated vouchers. It was the people of the state who did. They understood how much was at stake if they allowed such a program to take root. It would grow and change till it put a stranglehold on public education funding without giving the taxpayer something in return.

Tired,

You incorrectly state that 7K would be left in the public school. That was proven time and time again to be false and a blatant misunderstanding of 'cookie' politics. The feds send no money and the State allocates their share elsewhere. Besides, it wasn't the union that got the referendum off. The PTA did. Those parents were the real force that got the job done and killed vouchers.

Now it is time to remove the self-serving from office who do not listen. Goodbye Walker.

Isn't Walker also the one who got the district split legislation ball rolling? With promises of no new taxes, etc. Now one of the items the new school board is checking out, is a bond election for the new east side district.....

We need to insist on good open government in this state. We need to hold Carlene Walker and all the pro-voucher people accountable. She inttroduced this law and pushed it in the Legislature with the backing of the GOP Leadership.
Then PTA Members and teachers got the issue on the ballot. The Voucher bill then was defeated soundly by the people.
Then Walker, Curtis and the GOP Leadership then tried to say that the law still was in effect because of the clean up law. The courts then ruled that this was not the case.
The GOP Leadership has tried to cram this Voucher Bill down the throats of Utahns. The people have spoken and they do not want Vouchers.
The Legislature has not represented the will of the average Utahn. This voucher bill would help the wealtthly families but not the poor or minorities.
As a person of color I was glad to have the NAACP come out against vouchers. The Voucher bill was just plain wrong.
The Special Interest Groups had thier paw all over this law. The Parents for Choice and the several Legislators would have benifited personally by this law. Vote all the GOP out.

As a sitting member of a Board of Education here in the state I am proud to say that I too, supported vouchers. I did it because of the sorry state of our Public Schools. I did it because I support education for our Public, not just Public Education. The fact of the matter is, is that those who were vociferously opposed to Vouchers did it for selfish reasons and had no other alternative which would even attempt to raise the standard of education in our Public Schools. There were leaders of the anti vouchers from the USBA (Utah School Boards Association) and they received their marching orders from the NSBA (National School Boards Association) which was just like having the NEA and the National PTA involved. In a nutshell, our Public Schools have been hijacked by extremist groups which oppose any different opinions and put their faith in education fully in-line with the Government and not with the local people who should actually make the decisions. Our local schools are hurting because of people who will not allow for change, or thought, even for vouchers. There is no real meaningful dialogue at this point except for vouchers.

Guess what??? There are some people in District 8 who really like the idea of vouchers. Unfortunately, a lot of them didn't vote. Does anyone seriously think we have a great public school system here and that we're getting our money's worth? I've been involved with the schools for years, and I see nothing but dissatisfaction on all fronts. Incompetence is rampant throughout the system....including really bad school principles.

We as taxpayers would be better served if we voted for vouchers and let people decide where they want their children educated. And taxpayers would get a huge break! All the system guarantees, as it now stands, is that the wealthy are the only ones who have a choice as to the quality of their children's education. Contrary to Elkman's comments and those of others, people against vouchers are either more concerned with job security or want to deprive others of their right to a better education. I have yet to hear a plausible reason for the status quo...and the nonsense that it only benefits the wealthy is idiotic. They don't need the vouchers but the average working family does.

I agree with Broken System 9:25. Vouchers were (and still are) a great idea. The bill passed the legislature and was signed by the governor, but the UEA set their sights on it. The UEA wields a powerful influence in this state, and it flows down to influence teachers, PTA, parents, etc. They did an effective job of turning vouchers into the enemy, and vouchers were then defeated at the polls.

But after the defeat, people again began saying, �How can we correct our serious education problems?� Sorry, but it won�t happen until an element of true competition comes into the picture, forcing the public schools to improve. And we collectively just defeated one of the best ways to accomplish this.

Also, vouchers are not a deal for the wealthy. A study that the Deseret News published last year (during the debate) showed that, for the majority of private schools in the state, vouchers will pay for all or most of the tuition cost. However, the DN misinterpreted their own data, and therefore presented it the opposite way.

Spiff, and Karen morgan sponsorded the bill to allow 80% of governments approve the vote, Clearing the way for jordan to split. And I supported the split.

I live in CH, and voted for Carlene Walker the last time she ran, I wont be making that mistake again. And Supermom, I never heard a single logical arguement for vouchers. When your trying to change something you need to provide the proof that it needs changing, not the other way around. Otherwise your just like chicken little running around claiming the sky is falling.

To Hear, Hear:

Let me recap for you your voucher "solution" for public education:

1) Having our public schools hijacked by right-wing extremist groups like Parents for Choice in Education.

2) Taking the students who are least expensive to educate, giving their parents up to $3,000 that would have gone to a public school, and sending them on their way to private school leaving the public schools with LESS money.

And you are on a Board of Education? The voters in your area must be eating too many "oreo cookies" as they watch TV commercials paid for by extremist right-wing groups.

The Voucher bill was hard for people to understand. That's why it didn't pass. I like to tell people to look at it this way to see if it was good. Who supported them? The Republican party (and their platform by the way) who passed them. Mitt Romney. The extremely conservative hero (or ought to be) of all conservatives Arnold Friedman, and the Utah Taxpayers Association. Now let's look at who opposed them. The extremely liberal groups the ACLU, the NAACP, Bill Clinton (publicly), the UEA, and the Utah Democrat party. All publicly opposed them. So it seems that vouchers were a very good fit for a Republican state like Utah.

As a cottonwood Heights resident, I feel Carlene walker has been a great senator, And I will gladly support her in november. I really doubt the average voter cares about vouchers, considering 13% voted on the voucher referendum while the normal turnout is around 80%.

to Walker, Bye Bye, You wrote, "... When your trying to change something you need to provide the proof that it needs changing, not the other way around. Otherwise your just like chicken little running around claiming the sky is falling." May I just say that it should read ...When you're trying.... and ...around claiming that you're just like...

You have just made the point of those who are for Vouchers. We couldn't have said it better ourselves. You are a failure of public education with your spelling and grammar.

It is interesting that vouchers have historically been promoted as a way for the intercity poor to move their children away from failing schools, and yet the UEA and PTA have gone to great lengths here to demonize vouchers as a program for the wealthy. Mr. Jarvis, if you believe that it wasn't the UEA behind the defeat of the voucher program, then who was leading that cheer?

It is obvious that the UEA is opposed to anything that could possibly provide an alternative to their public school system, and Walker has crossed them.

And, it appears that Morgan is completely in favor of the UEA agenda.

The Republican Party in Utah has had an agenda against thee UEA for years. Their whole agenda is designed to bust the teachers union. First they underfund education for years, then they complain about it. Next came charter schools ( non-union schools). Ultimately they brought out vouchers. Their entire education policy is designed to undercut the UEA. I am interested in a real education strategy in the State of Utah that is about our children, instead of petty bias against a union.

Hide and watch what happens.