Tonight on KVNU’s For the People…
Paul T. Mero of the conservative think tank the Sutherland Institute will talk about a controversial essay he released arguing that vouchers could help stave off the public schools assault on Mormon culture and identity.
Assessments for No Child Left Behind have been released for both Logan City and Cache County School Districts. We’ll let you know which schools failed and which schools passed No Child Left Behinds standards and why.
Former Utah Governor Cal Rampton died peacefully last night. We’ll look back at his life and legacy as one of Utah’s most popular political figures.
Hillary Clinton proposed a health care plan today. Is it the cure for what ails America’s health care system?
Utah’s liquor laws are already confusing to much of the rest of the country and they may be ready to get a little bit stranger.
All of that, your phone calls and more, tonight on KVNU’s For the People!
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
- 9/17 Salt Lake Tribune: Adequate Yearly Progress: Utah schools miss mark
- 9/17 Salt Lake Tribune: Cache County School District performance on AYP
- 9/17 Salt Lake Tribune: Logan City School District performance on AYP
- Sutherland Institute: Vouhcers, Vows and Vexations
- Senate Site: Education in Utah: Historical context for the voucher discussion
- 9/15 Salt Lake Tribune: Controversial Sutherland Institute essay weighs in on education
- Utah Amicus: Paul Mero – Armchair Prophet
- 9/17 New York Daily News: Hillary Clinton announces plan to cover uninsured
You had a caller responding to vouchers that presented some information that I believe is not really accurate. She said that she didn’t want money from public schools spent on vouchers (some rich person taking money from her children or some such nonsense).
Here is the problem with that statement from my perspective. When the legislature began budget work the first thing they looked at was public education (it’s the biggest part of the budget, makes sense to look at it first). Income tax money–off to public ed. Whatever other traditional funds–off to public ed. Surplus–majority off to public ed. To the tune of an 18% budget increase for public ed. There, they had done their work and funded public education. Funded it better than it had ever been funded before.
After that was completed, the voucher debate began. Where do you fund vouchers from? They took money from sales tax. A pot that had not been used for education in the past. New money. Public ed had no real claim on it.
Where would that money have gone? Probably to a tax cut. That’s right, I am giving up a tax cut for an increase in education dollars. I am the one that should be on my high horse. No one’s little darling had a penny taken away from them to fund a voucher.
Now I guess I should acknowledge the UEA perspective–all dollars in Utah are education dollars. They just let us keep some of them out of the kindness of their hearts. That money I spent for lunch–could have been used for education. Mortgage–could have been used for education. Police, fire, etc–you get the point.
But that is the way this argument is going. The rich are stealing from the poor. Ignorant, greedy private school teachers will be turned loose to ruin the lives of children. I guess that is politics. I am more disappointed in the people who accept such arguments on face value than on those who spread those arguments.
I have an objection, too. Voucher opponents suggest that there aren’t many private schools in Utah that will be affordable for most families, even with a voucher. That assumes that the pool of private schools will not respond in any way to the prospect of thousands of families with thousands of dollars to spend on private school tuition. Private schools will undoubtedly react with tuition reductions, scholarships, etc. to attract this new crop of potential students.
Craig,
I’m sure your right. After all, our experience with higher education has shown that tuition has dropped dramatically every time government has provided more funds in the forms of grants or loan garantees for prospective students. Oh wait…no it hasn’t.
Every time government contributes more to higher education in the form of more money to state schools or more money in the form of tuition assistance to students tuition has gone up dramatically to the point where now higher education in America is more expensive than ever. Why do you think private schools will react any differently?
Craig,
Ryan read some averages on the radio yesterday. He then pulled a fast one and argued that the average is the actual that everyone would pay. If the average is $4500 then my guess is there are quite a few below the average as well as quite a few above — I am a bit slow on this math stuff but I think that is how it works
. And that is before the competitive aspects, that you pointed out so brilliantly, kick in.
In regards to Paul T. Mero comments. Public school is in fact an assault on any and all religion. I have to spend countless hours explaining, teaching, and undoing the “education” my children receive. I have certain beliefs that conflict directly with what is taught in public schools. Because someone decides that some scientific study explains some fact they can print it in a book schools get to teach it as fact. Yet this book gets updated yearly in order to fix the facts that were taught last year. Mormons have eye witness accounts of people who saw the golden plates that Joseph Smith claims he had. Why is this not taught as fact? How do you discredit some dozen + people when I can find equal numbers of people that argue about global warming or the way an economy works. Facts are facts…..right? And there is your problem. You can not seperate religion from the things we call education. Religion affects everything. Unless we stick to Reading, Writing and Arithmetic religion affects ALL other subjects. It is unavoidable anyone that says otherwise does not have their facts right.
The people who left England and stole this land from the Native Americans came here not for freedom from religion but for freedom to practice their religion. No where in our constitution does it say that someone should be free from the expression of my religion. Nor should I be free from someone else wanting to express their religion. It just so happens that the voices in Utah are 75 to 25 in favor of one religion. Go to Alabama….the odds are a lot stronger for the Baptist religion than they are for the Mormon religion. If we continue to allow the unions to teach our children we will get children free of rational thought. Is that right? Is that what we want as a country. As a parent I should be able to choose either private schools or public schools. You make the assumption that public schools have accountability and private schools do not. Try to get a teacher fired, they can teach almost anything they want. Private schools are accountable to the people that matter the most. The paying customer. Nothing and I mean NOTHING is more effective. If I as a paying customer had any impact on the public school I would have a problem with vouchers but because the only way I as a person can impact public school was to tell my representative that I wanted the school voucher program to pass. That apparently is not good enough for the union. Now they do what they do best. They throw lots of money to sway individual voters, they tell lies, they twist the truth and mobilize the lemmings to vote. And while I will vote for vouchers. Lemmings are good at showing up in mass at a given time and place. People like me are more likely to have a job and be working too hard to remember it is voting day. School teachers get off early and will have plenty of time to vote. I better quite before I really start ranting.