Possibility of real progress:
>Unions Frantic: Will School Choice Referendum Prevail in Utah?
by Phil Brand
Sept 8, 2007
No one says, “As goes Utah, so goes the nation,” but what happens over the next month in the Beehive State may well affect the prospects for education reform nationwide. Last February, Utah’s Republican Gov. John Huntsman signed into law an education voucher bill that promised to help the parents of Utah’s 512,000 public school students send their children to the school of their choice—public or private. The Parent Choice in Education Act was subsequently challenged and a referendum has put the issue before the state’s voters on November 6. A majority vote is needed to uphold school choice.
Educated for Less
It’s estimated that the average voucher ($500 to $3,000 per child, depending on family income) will be less than one third of Utah’s per pupil expenditure in the public schools ($7,100). But when Utah parents use a voucher for private schooling, the state’s public school systems will still get to keep, for another five years, most of the state money that would otherwise go for the child’s public school education. Talk about having your cake and eating it, too. Still, as more Utah children are educated for less than one third the cost of public education, it could save state taxpayers more than $1 billion over 13 years.< |
