Voucher vertigo
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By Lynze Wardle
Standard-Examiner Davis Bureau
lwardle@standard.net
Some seek signatures, other support for referendum
KAYSVILLE -- When it comes to the state's new private school voucher program, some people like it, some hate it and some, like Kaysville resident JoAnn Neilson, are going door to door to try to stop it.
"I just believe that if more parents would try to make their local (public) school better instead of pulling their children out, every child would benefit," said the former Utah PTA president.
Neilson and others are hoping to gather support for a referendum that would put the recently approved program to a public vote.
"I think that the majority of parents do not want this," she said of the vouchers.
In February, Gov. Jon Huntsman signed into law House Bill 148, or the Parent Choice in Education Act, which allocates $9.2 million in tax dollars next year to help parents pay for private education.
The amount of each voucher will range from $500 to $3,000, depending on parents' income, and can be used only at private schools the state has deemed academically sound and financially secure.
"It would definitely help us out," said Sheri Hart, a Layton resident with two children attending Layton Christian Academy, where tuition is approximately $3,900 per year.
Others, like Davis Education Association President Susan Firmage, are reluctant to see their tax dollars given to private businesses.
"Any other public service, or
public schools, could use that money."
Firmage and 300 others attended a March 8 meeting at Davis High School to hear from representatives of pro-referendum group Utahns for Public Schools.
Utahns for Public Schools is supported by organizations such as the PTA, Utah Education Association and NAACP and is trying to collect by April 9 the 92,000 signatures needed to put the issue on the ballot.
The group hopes to get 18,000 signatures from Davis County, Firmage said.
Firmage said she is not necessarily against vouchers, but hopes the public gets to vote on the issue. After all, she said, the bill passed the Utah House of Representatives by only a 39-38 vote.
Neilson said parents who want more choice in education should look toward publicly funded charter schools that offer varying curriculums.
Much of the opposition to the bill is rooted in misinformation, said Nancy Pomeroy, communications director for pro-voucher group Parents for Choice in Education.
"When people actually look at both sides, they go, 'Oh, it's not at all what I thought it was,'<2009>" she said.
On its Web site, www.choiceineducation.org, Parents for Choice in Education advises people not to sign the petitions for a referendum vote. Pomeroy said the group is also gathering complaints about schoolteachers and administrators signing petitions and holding meetings during work hours.
"Much of it is anecdotal, but we plan to pass it along through the proper avenues."
Firmage said DEA members have been advised that any anti-voucher activities must be conducted after work or during lunch.
Many worry that funding for the program will eventually be taken from public education, Firmaid. The bill ensures that money for the program will come from the state general fund for the next five years, but does not specify a long-term funding source.
"After that, the money could come from anywhere."
The voucher bill actually creates more money for public education, Pomeroy said, because it reduces public school classroom size without using property tax or Uniform School Fund money.
Public schools will also continue to receive, for five years after the student departs, some state money for each student lost through vouchers.
Sen. Greg Bell, R-Fruit Heights, was one Senate Education Committee member who voted in favor of the vouchers. He said lawmakers did not design the bill with the intent of ever funding it with public education money.
Fruit Heights resident Sherrie Martineau said she believes the voucher act allows parents to choose the school that best fits their childrens' needs. Her children have had a good experience in public school, Martineau said, but it is not right for everyone.
"I absolutely believe in 'let's educate the public,' " she said. "That doesn't mean it has to happen in public schools."
Three of Farmington resident Julie Barfuss' children graduated from public school; four more are in public or charter school classrooms.
She said she believes vouchers will force public schools to compete with private schools for students and that the quality of both will increase as a result.
The Utah State Office of Education expects to hand out between 2,500 and 3,000 tuition vouchers for the 2007-08 school year alone, state director of educator quality and licensing, Larry Shumway, said earlier this month.
Ogden's St. Joseph Catholic schools are already seeing more applicants than usual, said its high school advancement director, Marian Bischoff. School officials expect that, because of the vouchers, the high school will reach its maximum capacity of 225 by the 2008-09 school year.
Currently, 180 students attend the high school. "We've already had several inquiries about the vouchers," she said.
Full high school tuition is $6,950 per year, Bischoff said, but many students pay less because the school offers financial aid, scholarships and discounted "qualified Catholic rates" for active members of local parishes.
Layton Christian Academy officials also hope to be part of the voucher program, said the Rev. Dr. Myke Crowder, the school's founder. He said the vouchers are one solution to a "woefully inadequate" national public education system.
"We're putting choice back into the minds and hands of the people."
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