Sign the voucher petition
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t is ironic, we think, that the very people who have argued so strongly over the years for the right of choice in their children's education are now arguing against the right of voters to choose on the same topic.
We refer, of course, to the school vouchers law -- and specifically the effort by public-education advocates to bring the matter to a vote of the people -- as opposed to a vote of the Legislature.
After years of trying, school-voucher supporters finally convinced a majority of lawmakers and the governor to give parents between $500 and $3,000, depending on their income, to use to help pay tuition at private schools. They have insisted all along that the question was a matter of personal choice: If parents believed the public schools weren't adequately serving their children, they should be entitled to a tax subsidy for their children's education at a private school.
Public education, naturally, doesn't appreciate being told it isn't doing its job. But more importantly, anti-voucher forces in Utah believe it's unconstitutional to give taxpayer money directly to private schools that may be espousing a specific religious agenda. The way they see it, it violates the First Amendment's Establishment Clause. At the very least, they think the question of vouchers should be put to the voters of Utah, and not left up to fewer than 120 lawmakers and the governor to decide.
To get the question on the ballot, legions of volunteers are walking neighborhoods and asking for signatures -- not for or against the vouchers, per se, but to simply place the question of vouchers on the ballot.
For that reason, we encourage Utahns to sign the petitions. This really is a question that should be settled by the voters of Utah -- the mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters and grandmothers and grandfathers of Utah's school children. The debate over the vouchers should be robust and public, not confined to the halls of the Capitol.
If voucher advocates have a compelling case to make about using tax dollars to fund private education, they should have to make it to the broad spectrum of Utah voters.
Likewise, those against the recently passed voucher law should be able to make a convincing argument against it -- if the facts are on their side.
There are few issues as important to the future well-being of Utah's social and economic character as the health of our schools.
The voucher petitions, if successful, will force the discussion of this issue into the open, where it belongs, so that every parent and every taxpayer can make an informed decision.
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