Vote Against Referendum 1, Strong Public Schools Ought To Be Our Goal

Special Voucher Report for Ethan and other Utah Voucher Advocates

The Voucher Veneer
The Deeper Agenda to Privatize Public Education
By Ralph G. Neas

"A network of Religious Right groups, free-market economists, ultraconservative columnists and others are using vouchers as a vehicle to achieve their ultimate goal of privatizing education. Their embrace of vouchers reflects their view that to be successful, privatization must be achieved incrementally. The long-term goal is to make all schooling an activity supplied by private sources: for-profit management companies, religious organizations and home schools."

Just Say No

To Private Academy Vouchers!

Read Senator Scott McCoy's

What the heck does that mean?

News Release: Democrats urge Huntsman to resolve voucher question by calling special session

SALT LAKE CITY – Utah House and Senate Democrats have requested a special session of the Legislature to resolve the conflict over two voucher bills passed in the 2007 General Session.

HB 148 passed by one vote in the House, and late in the session HB 174 was drafted to clean it up. Now, questions involve whether the recently qualified referendum would affect only the first bill or both. Democrats want to resolve the issue in a special session.

A copy of the letter to Gov. Jon Huntsman seeking the action is below:

May 8, 2007

The Honorable Jon Huntsman, Jr.

Governor of the State of Utah

E220 State Capitol Complex

Salt Lake City, Utah 84114



Dear Gov. Huntsman:



We understand that you will not be calling a special session in May, deciding rather to hold the voucher referendum vote in November. We think that a special session is imperative to cleanup the statutory confusion over the conflicting language in the voucher bills passed last legislative session.

The two voucher bills, HB 148 and HB 174, were inextricably linked, and as near as we can tell, nobody, including legislative counsel, anticipated the odd result of the latter bill being able to stand as a separate mandate to implement a voucher law. Throughout the presentation and debate of the bill, it was proposed as a cleanup of HB 148, and votes of many who otherwise would have voted against the bill, were made on the basis that addressed some of the problems with HB 148.

Further, and we believe most important (and consistent with your remarks), the public knows that the referendum on vouchers was on the question of whether Utah should allow vouchers for private schools. That will properly be the focus of the election. Any technical issues from different interpretations of the legislation are extraneous to this basic issue that the people of Utah have the right to express themselves on. We should not be wasting state resources and the people’s energy on a red herring.

Please place this cleanup on a special-session agenda. As you have said, the voice and vote of the people of Utah should be the foundation for the future of vouchers in Utah.

We welcome any further discussion on this issue, and hope you will help provide some certainty on this matter by providing a way to clean up conflicting interpretations of whether vouchers should be implemented in the middle of a referendum called by the people.

Sincerely,


Ralph Becker Mike Dmitrich

On behalf of Utah Democratic Legislators

Cc: Utah State School Board, Speaker of the House, President of the Senate, Utah legislators

Utah Voucher Referendum: Part II

The Citizen's Voucher Referendum is On!

The Senate Site

Parents for Choice: Rhetoric vs. Reality

Chairman Wayne Holland Jr. just made a great point about the voucher referendum petition while being interviewed by The Deseret News.

If Parents for Choice truly believes that a majority of Utahns support vouchers based on their slanted poll, then they should be assisting Utahns for Public Schools to put the issue before the people of Utah, and allow Utahns to put this issue to bed once and for all. Instead it seems that they would rather continue to use Utah as an ongoing laboratory for right wing think tanks.

Unfortunately their rhetoric does not match reality. They claim Utahns support their issue, but at the same time they seem to fear bringing Utah citizens to the ballot box.

If they are so confidant that the majority of Utahns support vouchers then why are they spending so much money on their rhetoric in their attempt to take away the voters of Utah constitutional rights to be equals with the legislature?

One might ask, what are they really afraid of?

Citizen referendum on vouchers--an urgent appeal for your help

Dear friends,

As you are probably aware, a dedicated group of public school supporters known as Utahns for Public Schools has been working tirelessly to get Utah’s new voucher law on a referendum ballot, allowing voters to decide whether our tax dollars will fund the largest private school voucher experiment in the country. The referendum law sets an unbelievably high hurdle, requiring us to collect over 92,000 valid signatures in just over a month.

WE ARE IN THE FINAL DAYS OF THE PETITION EFFORT, AND WE NEED YOUR HELP!

We need volunteers all over the state—and especially in the densely populated Wasatch Front—to volunteer a few hours of their time during our Citizen Days event this Friday and Saturday. On those two days, volunteers will work in three-hour shifts starting at 10 am and 2 pm. (There will also be some evening shifts from 6 to 9 for volunteers unable to help during the day.) We will provide training, materials, and a location. I know it’s a sacrifice to take time away from your regular lives for an event like this, and I know that many of you have already donated time gathering signatures in your own neighborhoods. Please consider dedicating one more morning or afternoon to these important causes: protecting the future of our public schools and ensuring that citizens have a voice in their government.

Polls show that 80% of Utahns want to vote on this issue. But if we can’t gather the signatures in time, we won’t get that chance.

To sign up to help, you may contact me at lisa@metaserve.org or 801-495-1035.

You can also contact our volunteer coordinator directly at lindsay@utahnsforpublicschools.org or at 801-268-2161.

Pass this information along to your friends, or bring your friends with you this weekend.

(You may also use the contact information above if you are interested in signing the petition.)

Sincerely,

Lisa Johnson

Vouchers?
Let Utah voters decide!

In the session ending February 28, 2007, the Utah State Legislature passed a bill allowing tax dollars to subsidize private schools. This so-called “voucher” program is the widest-ranging, most poorly regulated law of its kind in the country.

Legislation establishing the voucher plan passed the Utah House by a single vote. It was then quickly passed by the Senate and signed by the Governor with little opportunity for public debate or input. The program is projected to cost taxpayers more than $425 million over the next thirteen years, according to legislative fiscal analysts.

Utahns for Public Schools believes voters should decide whether or not to move forward on the voucher proposal. Our petition will place the subject on the ballot in the form of a referendum.

For more on the referendum effort, visit http://www.utahnsforpublicschools.org/.

Voucher Truths IV

The Method:

"Early voucher bills may move us only slowly toward separation. They may include provisions that temporarily prolong the power of unions, school boards, and other remnants of the socialist regime; limit the number of students who can participate; set voucher amounts too low; and place restrictions on qualifying schools. But once established, those programs will be broadened.

Vouchers offer a halfway house to wean the public from their addiction to government provision of education. By removing institutional barriers to privatization and setting in motion a dynamic that ensures further movement toward competition and choice, vouchers are a necessary step toward complete separation."

Joseph Bast
President, Heartland Institute

Republican delegate responds to PCE's "Liberal Bad" letter

Despite attacks by policy makers and Parents for Choice,

Utahns for Public Schools ‘committed to ensuring that the will of the people is heard’

When David Gatti, a teacher and state Republican delegate, received a letter from Parents for Choice in Education (PCE) saying, “Republicans must not sign these [school voucher referendum] petitions,” he was outraged.

Like a majority of Utahns, Gatti believes that citizens should have an opportunity to vote on whether or not private school vouchers are a wise use of taxpayer dollars. (In a March 9 poll released by KSL Television, 80 percent of Utahns said they would sign a petition to put education vouchers on the ballot.)

In a response to Doug Holmes, PCE chairman and author of the letter, Gatti reminded Holmes that the referendum process provides checks and balances on the power of the state’s policymakers “just in case elected officials do not represent the will of their [constituencies].

“The fact that you are against letting the people vote on such an important piece of policy lets me know that you are afraid of the possible results,” Gatti told Holmes. “I do not disagree that there are parts of the public education system that could be revamped. Let’s start by investing our money there – where [96] percent of Utah students are and will continue to be educated. Finally, do not ask me not to exercise my constitutionally guaranteed right to petition the government. Many people have died, and are dying for that document; do not ever insult it like this . . . and especially never do it under the guise of being a responsible Republican.”

Gatti and more than 15,000 volunteers statewide have until April 9 to gather 92,000 signatures and ensure a ballot referendum on a new private school voucher law passed by the 2007 Utah Legislature. The organization behind the referendum effort – Utahns for Public Schools (UTPS) – has support from the following organizations: Utah State Parent Teacher Association (PTA); Utah School Boards Association (USBA); Utah School Superintendents Association (USSA); Utah School Employees Association (USEA); Utah Education Association (UEA); NAACP – Salt Lake Chapter; League of Women Voters; Utah Association of Elementary School Principals (UAESP); and the Utah Association of Secondary School Principals (UASSP). According to UTPS, 9,000 petitions have been delivered to the Utah Education Association and 6,000 have been delivered to PTA volunteers.

“We have PTA moms and dads who are leading this effort to give the people of Utah a chance to vote on whether vouchers are worth the expense,” said Carmen Snow, state PTA president and a UTPS spokesperson. “We have encountered roadblocks at every turn, but our people remain committed to ensuring that the will of the people is heard.”

The “roadblocks” Snow referred to began after the referendum petition was filed in early March. UTPS attorney Janet Jenson received a call from the office of Utah Lt. Governor Gary Herbert, telling her the petition was invalid because the notary’s stamp was green instead of purple. The state employee Jenson talked to later recanted. Jenson received another call informing her that the petition was invalid because it was called a “Petition for Referendum,” rather than an “Application for Petition for Referendum.” Once again, following a challenge by Jenson, the employee recanted.

Lt. Governor Herbert and Utah state Senator Curtis Bramble (R-Provo) then proceeded to argue that the referendum petition to put education vouchers on the ballot was pointless because a second law was passed by the Legislature – and that law superseded House Bill 148, the basis for the petition drive.

Jenson argues that the second bill (House Bill 174) does not supersede HB 148.

And that means repealing HB 148 will kill both bills. In addition, Jenson noted that it wasn’t possible to challenge HB 174 because it hadn’t been signed into law by the time the referendum deadline passed.

“Having spent more than half a million dollars to buy legislators’ votes and get the voucher bill enacted by a single vote after it had been voted down six previous times, did we really believe that the pro-voucher machine would just quietly roll over when we stood up for ourselves, our children and our public schools and demanded to vote?” Jenson said. “Heavens, no. Voucher proponents will use every weapon they’ve got to stop us from putting this on the ballot. We have to expect them to run media ads that distort the truth, file lawsuits, pressure people not to sign petitions or even to take their names back off after they do sign.”

Last week, as Jenson predicted, the Utah Republican Party began running radio advertisements, patting themselves on the back for a legislature and governor who approved the nation’s most sweeping voucher legislation. When the ads first aired, they ended with a notation they had been paid for by the Utah Republican Party. That tag line was taken off after a couple of days.

“Like the civil rights marchers of the 1960’s, we will not stop until Utah taxpayers are given an opportunity to be heard on this most important issue,” said Snow.

Voucher Truths III

The Method:

"Incrementalism is a different strategy. It consists of seeking passage of very limited or modest voucher plans with no provisions for later expansion. Supporters of an incrementalist strategy plan to introduce at a future date new legislation that would expand the program."

Design Guidelines for School Vouchers
The Heartland Institute

Voucher Truths II

The Method:

"We see vouchers as a major step toward the complete privatization of schooling. In fact, after careful study, we have come to the conclusion that they are the only way to dismantle the current socialist regime."

Joseph Bast
President, Heartland Institute
(From an essay published by the Cato Institute)

Voucher Truths

The Goal:

"I proclaim publicly that I favor ending government involvement in education."

Paul Mero
President, Sutherland Institute

Bob Van Velkinburg Says: Utah has the best legislators that money can buy

Hopefully, within the next few weeks someone will contact you and ask you to sign a referendum petition to repeal HB148.

Sign it!

HB148 is the legislation recently passed in the last session that would use taxpayer money for parents who want to send their children to private schools. It is not my purpose to discuss here the many things that are bad about vouchers but I would like to zero in on this question.

Why would so much money be spent on this voucher issue? It is estimated that almost $500,000 was spent by people and organizations who favor vouchers.

Even more curious is why would an organization based in Wisconsin called "All Children Matter" want to spend $290,000 of their money to support this issue in Utah? Of course this organization is heavily funded by the Wal-Mart and Amway Heirs but what dog do they have in this fight?

Then there is the local Utah organization called "Parents for Choice." They paid back the Republican Party $70,000 for the cost of their dirty tricks flyers. Another $110,000 in direct contributions to their candidates. Parents For Choice PAC shelled out $58,000 to their picked candidates. Another $58,000 to elect their School Board candidates.

So you can see why Utahns can say with some degree of pride, "We have the best Legislators that money can buy."

Go to www.utahnsforpublicschools.org for more information.

Bob Van Velkinburgh

From Natalie's Blog

My Rant
From Education in Utah

"It is infuriating that the Lt. Governor and certain senators are so quick to dismiss the voucher referendum (I must admit, I knew there was a problem with Mr. Herbert during the nomination process. As a state delegate, I attended a meet & eat with him, and heard him laughingly agree with a delegate that said, "The biggest mistake this state ever made was in providing free public education." Nice.)"

Check out Natalie's labels.

Support of the Public Education System

By Elizabeth Chipman

In an attempt to improve educational opportunities, the Utah Legislature has passed a bill allowing a voucher system. While we must always support choice, the public schools have been and always will be the repository of core American values. They offer a balanced historical vision of our nation and its unique mission in the world. They offer equality of educational opportunity to all classes of citizens. They teach cooperative, peaceful interaction of diverse racial and cultural groups. They help socialize youngsters to mainstream acceptable social skills, manners, common values such as taking turns, the value of work, excellence in endeavors, goals, volunteerism, helping others, pledge of Allegiance, voting, loyalty to country and family, and all religious views.

In many of these areas, the benefits of private or Charter schools cannot be counted on to deliver back to America these same qualities, while with a voucher system, they divert significant amounts of tax monies from our public system. America badly needs a solid base of citizens with a common vision and commitment to an egalitarian and diverse Democracy. We cannot undermine this foundation without de-stabilizing our society for the sake of pandering to elitism, exotic reinventions of core curriculum, or at its worst, extremist political or religious groups who wish to use schools to indoctrinate the next generation. We need to renew a consistently generous funding of our public schools system before it crumbles.

Utahns for Public Schools website

Click here to check it out!

To sign the voucher referendum petition click here!