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Pro-voucher members join education board

IT looks like Utah wants vouchers again. They voted back in most of the incumbents who voted for vouchers last time and now the school board is out of the way. That MUST mean that Utah has seen the light.

If only the courts hadn't shot down the ban on voter led initiatives vouchers would be a slam dunk deal.

Looks like anonymous above is just trying to get readers afraid again. This is how liberals work.

VOUCHERS ARE DEAD and gone. NO ONE on the Hill would even touch a voucher bill, they'd be crucified by anon and the media.

I am a conservative voucher supporter and have resigned myself to the fact that vouchers are dead.

Why is it that the left can't let them go?

If you truly analyze the voucher idea with an open mind you'll see that it benefits children. Parents will have more choices and the choices will create a need for schools to become high quality.

I live in Taylorsville and am in the Plymouth elementary boundary. I do not send my kids there and most of the kids in the neighborhood go elsewhere for a variety of reasons. If there were some accountability to the school for being such a poor school (not an attractive option for parents) then their funding should be minimized and the funding should follow the kids.

This "free market" system is what made our country great and is what will be the change we need in our education system to prepare our kids to compete for jobs in a global market.

Utah has not "seen the light." Utah has been outfoxed and manipulated into a position where backroom decisions can thwart the will of the majority.

My incumbent board member, who supported vouchers in north Utah County, lost to an a Midway person who opposes vouchers. What does that say? I don't think the election says people are now supporting vouchers.

The only thing that happened was people didn't know who the candidates were and voted blindly.

Vouchers were trounced last time.

I'd really like to see someone try to bring them back now.

It would mean a quick political death.

My children attended Plymouth Elementary, Eisenhower Junior High, and Taylorsville High and all received scholarships to continue their education. They received excellent instrution at all three schools. My neighbors are not convinced that More Choices is anything but a complainer who didn't get her own way and goes about bad-mouthing the school.

The process of the candidates is absurd. How can the public elect someone when the public HAS NO INFORMATION about the candidates. The guy who won in my area and he had NO information that said much of anything available. Plus, no experience to speak of. The public would have seen this, but was eliminated from voting for the best candidate by the process.

My question is who recruited these individuals?

Vouchers had better be dead!

I'm a conservative AGAINST publicly funded vouchers. All these "rich" people who support vouchers should start donating their money to parents so they can have their "choice." There�s no law that prohibits you voucher supporters from collecting money and distributing it as you see fit. Privately funded vouchers are the way to go. No politics involved, no tax dollars going to another government program!!

RE: Not so | 8:23 a.m. Nov. 6, 2008

My thoughts exactly!! Thank You!!

More choices just has an axe to grind!! Maybe better parenting would make for a most excellent school experience for your kids!!!

I am still trying to figure out how vouchers would help a Charter School. Why would a Charter School advocate think that vouchers would help their school or have an impact on their school? The last voucher bill was written so that even Charter Schools would have to pass on the funding to a Private School if any of their students left, it was a paperwork nightmare for District and Charter School and the State Office of Education. If we want a voucher law, let's come up with a bill that puts the distribution and follow up on the heads of the legislature and not on the Districts, Charter Schools, and State Office of Education.

IMO, anyone who tries to bring back vouchers after Sens. Valentine and Bramble, and Reps. Dougall and Sumsion, among others have said that they are dead for the foreseeable future, will become the next sacrificial lamb of the Republican party.

My SSB member was Mark Cluff and I voted for Carol Murphy because after attending a Meet the Candidates Night, I learned more about her and felt she was the best qualified candidate to come out of this stupid system of how to pick candidates.

fixing education is not to only give %2 of children an exit out of our broken education system, but to FIX %100 of the system for ALL kids.

Vouchers are for the rich Uppy East siders, NO TO VOUCHERS!

Looks like our leaders are putting placements for another round of Voucher fighting!

The way state school board memebers get elected has got to change. This election was rigged with partisian politics in the choosing of who should run and people that were against vouchers were eliminated. The whole process is another "Shame on the Republican Party" for its manipulation of the system to benefit its own ideoligical agenda.

Hunstman chose the list of candidates for us. The original slate of candidates was much bigger and he whittled it down to a group who were more pro-voucher/pro charter. With the legislature and now this group, vouchers are not going away and traditional public schools are still going to be attacked by legislation that takes money away and gives it to charters.

To More Choices:

Just how did the USA become a great nation of educated, motivated and patriotic citizens who know how to work, learn, live together, and join together to fight for their freedoms? Don't you think public education played and plays a vital role?

The devious state legislature has been stacking the state school board in favor of its agenda. If I am not mistaken, the names offered to the public on the ballot have to be approved by the state government (a recent law)--a similar process currently exists in Russia for its presidential elections. I really wonder if our state leaders even believe in democracy anymore.

to "More Choices" - The free enterprise system implies "choosing your raw material". The public system does not discriminate with its "raw material". It accepts and must accept "all comers". You will find the same students who succeed in private schools will succeed in public schools with the same kind of parent involvement and support. The public schools have all kinds of accountability. Where is the accountability for lack of parent support with education?

40% of voters supported vouchers. If the school board were actually represented of the voters, then 40% of the school board members should support it, too.

Ok all you Anti-Voucher people, please give all of us a better idea to help allow all students have a choice in their education so they can receive the best education based on the philosophy that best suits their needs. After you do that then I will come out against Vouchers and support the better initiative. Until then, shut up about who supported vouchers and move on.

Vouchers are surely not dead. They will come back at some point in one form or another. The state had been building up towards passing them for years. They finally got vouchers through when enough votes had been bought. The school board, PTA and the union got in the way and the people voted them down.

The legislature removed the right of the people to start initiatives. The courts fortunately struck them down.

The Governor 'fixed' the school board race.

The people who voted for vouchers were mostly re-elected.

Vouchers had been approaching Utah for a long time before they passed, and they most assuredly can wait a little longer till they have a initiative proof majority.