ding ding ding ding.
Has to be the most intelligent response of the day.
Posted on 11/07/2007 2:39:08 AM PST by The Raven
Voters decisively rejected the will of the Utah Legislature and governor Tuesday, rejecting what would have been the nation's most comprehensive education voucher program in a referendum blowout.
...
Voucher supporter Overstock.com chief executive Patrick Byrne - who bankrolled the voucher effort - called the referendum a "statewide IQ test" that Utahns failed.
"They don't care enough about their kids. They care an awful lot about this system, this bureaucracy, but they don't care enough about their kids to think outside the box," Byrne said.
(Excerpt) Read more at origin.sltrib.com ...
Nah. The folks in Utah have much more of a commitment to public schools than is commonly understood.
This is just proof of that.
I had access to good public schools, long ago, and also attended a private school for awhile, and attended both good public and private colleges. Grew up in a great family as well.
With those blessings to guide me, I think all is not lost. Not forever, anyway.
Let somebody analyze what caused Utah voters to vote this down. I don’t think every plan in every state in America and how every plan is presented to the public have to follow the exact path the Utah defeat followed.
Within defeat are often seeds of future victory.
Even in the few places where public schools still work after a fashion, you have to ask at what cost. More often than not it’s twice or more what you’d pay for private schools and the extra money should be being put away for college educations.
PS - Here's Stossell's article on this
Too bad they don’t have a similar commitment to their children’s education. After all, this isn’t about public schools, it is about the quality of education their children receive.
Skools are the best jobs in lost of podunk towns. I don’t know if you have noticed but teachers, cops, firemen form a iron triangle and always support and vote for each others pay raise, palaces, and other interests.
Asking people to think for themselves, is in at least half the cases, impossible. So, the very idea of taking control of ones mental development is unfathomable. They grew up in the public skool box, and can not think outside of it.
Money and habit, vs. risk.
ding ding ding ding.
Has to be the most intelligent response of the day.
I am very sympathetic to the concept of vouchers but fear too many strings will be attached by government if it were to become widespread. We send our child to a private Christian school and it stinks paying for publik skools and a private education. Nevertheless, I don’t trust government to keep their marxist hands off of quality private schools if vouchers were available. The stakes are too high for a little bit of money back in my pocket.
Ouch!!!! But true!
>>Nevertheless, I don’t trust government to keep their marxist hands off of quality private schools if vouchers were available
Good point !!!
The reason vouchers keep failing is that they’ve got such a small constituency. The people who receive the primary benefit from them are people who either have their kids in private schools, or who would put them in private schools, if they rec’d a voucher. Unfortunately, that is less than 51% of the voters, and will continue to be.
Looking at the bad side, though, the lack of a voucher program reduces the support for public education, generally. People without school age kids are likely to vote against education funding. Now people who have their kids in private schools will do so as well. And that is a growing percent of the voters.
Well Byrne didn't help matters with his comments that you "might as well throw away" black students who flunk out. The NAACP made a big stink which overshadowed the referendum.
30 years ago when this issue was being discussed, the Pastor at my childrens church school told every parent, that in the event that government aid to parents of private school children became available, that anyone accepting it would be asked to remove their children from the school. In my opinion he was correct in his thinking.
See #14.
The school that my grandchildren attend said that they would not accept vouchers. Too many strings attached.
That is the truth. This doesn’t surprise me at all. I would have been shocked otherwise. Utah is a state where people still feel the schools are theirs.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I assisted a family member who is a teacher (Jr. High) with grading a relatively simple assignment. I told her that I would have failed 3/4 of her class - she agreed but said the School District doesn't allow her to do so. Most of the work was less than pathetic - my dad would've taken me to the woodshed if I had come home with one of those assignments. But, at least, her students will FEEL good about themselves.
The students I felt bad for were the two or three who turned in the A grade work in a sea of F worthy crap (which ended up with a C). We're failing our kids but the general populace isn't involved or informed enough to care - everyone is too focused on fun and "me me me".
One last thing to note as well is that Utah is quite deceptive. While the states seems dominated by Republicans, many (if not most) of our elected officials are weak social Republicans and fiscal Democrats.
Utahns are incredibly trusting of government. The result is that state and local government, for the most part, taxes and spends (often on feel good stuff) and government programs and institutions are frequently seen as sacred, untouchable stuff (such as public ed). While there is a minor tax rebellion going on in Davis and Weber counties, it remains to be seen if it can reach a tipping point where people come to their senses and exact greater responsibility from government for the use of our money...
I agree with that as well, it would've been the greatest danger of vouchers and one that would have had to have been vigilantly watched over. I guarantee, if vouchers had passed that education establishment legislators would've crafted legislation to get their paws into private schools and further undermine parental freedom in their child's education.
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