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Stateline.org: Vouchers see mixed success this session

Last year was a banner one for the choice movement. Of 28 states that considered bills, eight enacted laws to create or expand voucher or tax credit programs. Currently, 12 states and the District of Columbia have some type of choice program, ranging from personal tax credits to vouchers for kids in failing schools.

Interesting, balanced article.

Word on the Street is that our anti-voucher group has amassed enough signatures to put an referendum on the ballot. If so, some congratulations are in order – that was not an easy task.

3 Comments:

 Dave said...

You're telling me that with 30,000+ public school employees, 22,000 or so UEA members, and tens of thousands of PTA members (who were all told that their organization opposes vouchers) it was difficult to get 131,000 signatures, even though they had complete access to use every public school in the state to push their agenda on parents?

If each UEA member got 7 signatures each, that would put the total at over 140,000!! How hard is that??!!

How are voucher supporters even supposed to compete when we don't even know which parents on our block support vouchers while the UEA has access to every teacher and public school employee in the state?

Some of the petition pushers wouldn't even tell people whether it was for or against vouchers. They would only reply "Don't you think people should get to vote on whether or not we have vouchers?"

Well, who's going to say no to that, especially when they don't tell parents the other side of the story: that the petition is just another attempt to stop the growth of parental choice.

How many voucher supporters signed the petition because they lacked sufficient info on what it was about?

A friend of mine was at an event this weekend where petition pushers were at and he noticed that a guy who said he supported vouchers was about to sign the petition. My friend stepped in and told him that the petition was in an effort to the repeal the voucher program. "Oh?" he replied, and then walked off without signing the petition because he understood what it was about.

Of course, that's not the story we'll hear from the anti-voucher groups. Instead, they'll have us believe that all 130,000 people on their petition are against vouchers.

And let's not forget how they had complete access to our public schools to push for signatures. In fact, a friend of mine at Valley Elementary got a pro-petition flyer that was sent home with her kids from school!!

How much easier could they make it for the UEA, PTA, School Boards Assoc, Superintendent Assoc and other USOE officials to push the petition than by letting them use our public schools as bully pulpits?

4/09/2007 2:39 PM  

 Jeremy said...

Hey Dave,

Crying about this isn't going to help. You need to get your side out there to vote for vouchers. This time though you need to get citizens out...buying legislators isn't going to win for you this time.

As much as you cry about those who organized the referendum movement you cant change the fact that if Utahns don't want vouchers right now then you can't force them on us. The system works.

4/09/2007 4:42 PM  

 Dave Hansen said...

The system works? Is that why the REAL Salt Lake issue isn't going to be on the ballot? I recall that more Utahns were upset about that than the vouchers....

And please don't give me the "buying off legislators" line. Let's not pretend that the education establishment is powerless on the hill and in the elections. 20,000 people can easily stack precinct caucuses.

4/10/2007 7:42 AM  

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