October 17th, 2007 - Richard Okelberry

By now most are familiar with Utah's Referendum 1, Voucher Debate. Many issues have been raised by both sides during this controversy. Regardless of the legitimacy of these arguments it is clear to me that the main driving force against Private School Vouchers, Utahns for Public Schools is being plainly dishonest about their intentions. In most cases of this sort an organization's primary motivation has more to do with money and power than any of the other stated, altruistic reasons.

Utahns for Public Schools have published both on their web site and in their barrage of well funded commercials a litany of attacks against the Voucher program intended to encourage a "NO" vote by voters.

• Too many loop holes. (vague)
• Unanswered questions. (very vague)
• Next to no accountability.
• No oversight.
• Private schools are not required to be accredited
• Teachers are not required to have a license or a college degree.
• Private voucher schools don't have to meet the same coursework or attendance standards that public schools must meet.
• Utah class sizes are the highest in the nation.
• Utah is last in spending per student.
• Most Utah counties have no private schools anyway.
• More money should be spent on public schools.

Let's assume for argument sake that each of these points to be true and valid and beyond discussion. Now let's also wave our magical hypothetical wand and redraft Referendum 1 so that it addresses each of these points of contentions. Does anyone in the entire state of Utah truly believe that Utahns for Public Schools would suddenly become a supporter of a voucher system? Of course they wouldn't. Utahns for Public Schools would like you to believe that they are purely motivated by the general welfare of school aged children. In reality they are only interested in maintaining control of one of the largest public expenditure while simultaneously suppressing their only true competition in the area of education. Just

like any union, teacher's unions feel threatened by any non-union employees that might undercut their bargaining power.

Now if we continue to accept the premise that to receive public funding, private schools should be required to comply with the same requirements as public schools; should we also not demand that all private schools, even "Home Schools" be forced to comply with these standards regardless of the existence of Vouchers? After all, isn't the government always the first guardian and protector of children?

Utahns for Public Schools have regularly complained throughout the voucher debate that Utah not only spends the least per student while simultaneously having the largest class sizes in the country. However, conveniently absent from their web site is the fact that Utah has one of the highest graduation rates and test score averages in the country. Perhaps that is more a statement about the value of family and the commitment of parents to be involved in the education of their children in the state of Utah then any drum beat notion of dollars per child in the public schools system. I am not yet willing to so easily give up on the decission making power of our parents, even when it comes to vouchers.

If you still have any questions about the deceptive tactics used by teacher's unions consider this: Why is it that teacher's unions never want to talk about teacher pay rankings after being adjusted for the cost of living in a particular area? Remember that some teachers somewhere in the country will always be the least paid, unless of course we have a national referendum that would requires all teachers to be paid the same. I wonder what the teacher's unions would think about that.

Richard Okelberry - Managing Editor