Reader comments
Vouchers appear doomed

I think we all knew that when the PTA got enough signed up for the referendum.

Vouchers might have had a chance in Utah if they had been limited to the poor or lower income groups. By offering everybody a voucher it meant Utah would be footing the bill eventually for all kids attending private school, even those who could easily afford it.

There were also too many flaws and gapping lack of standards of accountability and school safety that made anyone who read the bill question why on earth were our representatives pushing this.

Then we have the paid bloggers, Sutherland Institute, the anti-liberal campaign, Oreos, Byrne and other nonsense that made the Pro Voucher campaign laughable and did more to kill any support from most who were undecided months ago. It is not easy to win when every few weeks or so one of your key approaches turns out to be shooting yourself in the foot.

As a Republican, I will not vote for vouchers. It won't help our public education. I think the people behind this movement have a vested interest in seeing private schools get more students. But I think the big reason I am opposed to the voucher bill is the Republican legislature. They have proven by the way they have reacted to opposition that they are being paid off by the pro-voucher lobby. They seem dead set on taking aim at anyone opposed to vouchers. Seeking retribution is Un-American. All it proves is that they really aren't representing the people, but they are representing lobbyist and their own self interests. I hope people take note of the legislatures who are planning on taking aim at anyone that voiced an opinion against the vouchers.

Of course they are going down.

LEGISLATORS - Please listen to the public

We don't want vouchers. We just want our public schools to be funded better than they are now. We want teacher pay to increase enough that teachers from other states WANT to come here. We need a teacher surplus in order to improve things in Utah. Please spend the surplus money on teacher salaries.

Also please let the voucher issue die. Don't bring back another bill next year. The public has spoken.

If the teachers Union wants to stop vouchers and 81% of the democrats are for them, that should tell us something. Vote YES.

There are Lies, Damn Lies and Dan Jones. Everyone with a brain knows that most polls are conducted to shape political opinions....not gauge them. We'll see what happens on November 6th.

America's education monopoly is an enormous enterprise of over $500 BILLION per year that generates over $2 BILLION per year into union coffers. Much of this cash goes to generously grease the wheels of government, which generates enormous political power.

I know it sounds very harsh to say this out loud, but factually the educrats are holding our children hostage in substandard schools (see Wall Street Journal editorial, below), often under horrendous conditions, in order to maintain this bonanza on the backs of hard-working taxpayers. How they get away with this day after day and year after year is difficult to explain, other than to say that he who controls the government gets to do whatever they please.

The mystery is why the media in general and both the organized sides on this issue have done such a lousy job of explaining the real issues.

Several people I know have written to various writers and talk-show hosts, asking them to explain Education Funding 101: How is the money spent before the voucher law was passed? How does a weighted pupil unit work? What really happens to a school's funding, and when, if a student uses a voucher?

So far as we have seen, no one has ever given the voters that basic information.
Hundreds of people have written in these comments, with 40 variations of what they think happens, and the 2 ad sponsors have played up their projections of what might happen, but all the media delivers is polls?

Leah Barker is being disingenuous. The pro-voucher side has outspent the anti-voucher campaign by nearly half a million dollars. The pro-voucher network is vast and well-funded. They've been pushing the lame idea of vouchers for decades all across the country. Every time it has been on the ballot voters have rejected it.

I, too, will be voting against Referendum 1.

I can Totally understand 81% of Democrats voting against vouchers since they are so conditioned to accepting anything and everything provided Free by "The Government" and are so receptive to voting as instructed by the Unions. What I don't understand is the reported 50% of Republicans voting against. These thinking voters will surely realize that opening up our failing school system to the Free Enterprise method that has been the backbone of American Business success forever can do nothing but improve education for our children. Once they do, before next Tuesday, I think they'll vote intelligently as they usually do. Let's all hope so!

This will be a sad day for Utah Education if this Referendum does not pass. I know the Education Community thinks they will win by defeating this motion, but it will be back and will keep knocking at the door. Their virtual monopoly will stay in place for the moment. They will continue to insist that if they just had more money and smaller classes they could succeed. Some of them really don't understand that it is partly the system. If parents were more involved in making some choices they would feel more connected and more satisfied with the system. Other voucher experiments have proved this. John Kasich in his book, "Stand for Something: The Battle for America's Soul" says it as well as anyone. He states "We have a Higher Education system in the United States that is the best in the world and a Public Education system that is third rate?" His point is that Universities do well because they deliver or they have no customers and are out of business. This is our chance to make some small and meaningful changes to Utah's Public Education system that would empower Utah's parents and children. I�m still in favor.

Monies should go/stay in public schools.

According to another article on this site ("Utah test scores are startling") Utah ranks dead last in test scores and yet people are still going on with their zombie-like support of the terrible public education system in Utah. Good thinking everybody ... let's all support what's proven to not work!

What's really happening here is that the same people who are victims of the Utah education system from a generation ago are now the voters who lack the critical thinking skills needed to see that vouchers are a good thing.

If voucher proponents really want to help low-income families, they should spend their millions of dollars to provide thousands of scholarships to those same families. What a waste!

This is exactly the headline I would expect from a newspaper intent on killing the referendum. Congratulations to the DMN for continuing to demonstrate its bias and in helping the unions spread their propaganda in their fight to maintain control.

Voters: Read the bill and make a decision on your own. You'll only get partial truths from the media.

To the Hinckley Institute and Mr. Dan Jones... Thank you for validating that the UEA and friends...the ACLU, Mrs. Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Nancy Palosie, Barbara Boxer, et al liberals will probably win the day on the Referendum. Thank you all. I'm still voting yes.

If people actually do show up at the polls, then this beast will get a well-deserved stake through it's malicious heart.

Will the legislature learn any lessons from this public rebuke? Ha! We wish!

No, these are not the kind of guys who admit to having made errors. Instead, they're going to seek revenge against the very folks they're supposed to be representing.

Just watch - they'll take their wrath out on public schools this January.

We need to follow-up Tuesday's vote with another vote in November of next year. Vote every one of the pro-voucher legislators out of office.

Shows how many people have actually read the voter information packet. We have increased public school spending from $3 billion a year to $5 billion a year, and someone is complaining we might spend less that 1/2 billion over 13 years to make class sizes smaller using voucers.

$400 Million vs $65 billion to $100 billion.

To do anything the way the UEA wants, would cost much, much more. This is a good idea. Vote for vouchers.

Apparently the incessant drumbeat of anti- voucher rhetoric from the teachers' union and the news media has been working. Sadly most of their allegations are demonstrably false.
The abuse of office by some of those in the education bureaucracy, and some teachers, is proof tht they care more about maintaining their monopoly and power than educating our kids.
Despite the many fine teachers, overall the public schools are growing steadily worse, not better. The worst are little more than liberal indoctrination centers and baby sitters. No wonder parents are eager to have options!
Parents would do well to make any sacrifice necessary to send their kids to private schools. or take on the burden of home schooling.
It's for the children---- unless you are for the powerful teachers' union.

Bob Bernick and the Deseret News doomed vouchers, along with the teacher's union, the National Education Association and others who defend the status quo of no merit based pay, less competition, and therefore less quality education for our students. Our less than stellar educational expectations for our students are not keeping up and with the industrialized world in training students for a global economy. And other countries like India, China, and Japan who turn out more engineers and scientists will only continue to fill the jobs (even in Utah) since our students can't fill those positions. I agree that parents, students and teachers must step up together to meet these challenges. But the system must favor more competion, and allow people to spend their towards a school of their choice, if we are too succeed.

Thank goodness, taxpayers are doing their homework. I like many people don't have children in public school, yet I strongly support them. Education builds a strong future. If we let certain special interest take our tax money for their own designs,(even though supporters claim it comes out of the general fund not school fund - it is still tax money). we limit resources for public education. I don't use the fire department, UTA, or prison system. Should I get a voucher because I choose to carpool instead of Public Transportation or a tax voucher because I choose not to use the prison system? Of course not! That would be ridiculous. Keep doing your homework you smart taxpayers. Vouchers will only be another means of using our tax money for special interests.