More school-voucher intrigue
There are 5 comments for this page [ View ]Thursday, April 17, 2008
In the 2007 debate over school vouchers -- taxpayer dollars going to fund private schools -- the pro-voucher side identified its chief enemy as the Utah State Board of Education. A majority of the board's members disapproved of vouchers, and were a considerable and effective obstacle to lawmakers who tried to get the voucher program up and running before a scheduled voter referendum on the subject.
The Utah Supreme Court sided with the State Board of Education, and vouchers were delayed until the people could vote.
Voters defeated vouchers by a statewide margin of almost 2-1 in November, and those members of the Legislature who supported vouchers have since said they will not attempt such wholesale voucher legislation again. But they are, perhaps, counting on getting their way via another avenue: changing the composition of the State Board of Education.
That's the suspicion among anti-voucher Utahns. They point to the membership of the 12-person, governor-appointed nominating and recruiting committee of the Board of Education, and to the list of candidates who have filed to run for election to the Board of Education.
For example, candidates who have filed in District 1 include a former charter school board member and the author of a Utah State University pro-voucher study.
It could be the anti-voucher folks are just paranoid. But it's true that in Utah, the process could be highly susceptible to manipulation if people in power were inclined to do so. That's because you don't get on the ballot for the state school board by simply filing for the office and maybe besting an opponent in a primary election.
In the Beehive State, you must file, and then meet the approval of the nominating and recruiting committee. If you get that far, you must be one of three candidates in each district who are then recommended to the governor. In turn, the governor reduces the number of candidates in each district from three to two, and those names are placed on the November ballot.
The political juice in this process rests with the nominating and recruiting committee. Depending on its makeup, its members could tip the scales toward voucher supporters before the governor ever sees the list -- not that he would necessarily be opposed to such a scenario, since you'll recall that he quickly signed the 2007 voucher legislation into law and campaigned for its passage prior to the voter referendum.
The suspicion by voucher opponents is that the current nominating and recruiting committee tilts pro-voucher, or if for no other reason than more pro-voucher candidates have applied for a spot on the ballot, the names recommended to the governor will be weighted on that side of the issue. If that's the case, when the list hits the governor's desk it could be a fait accompli -- more pro-voucher candidates on the ballot could transform the Board of Education into a voucher-friendly body.
In the final analysis, government isn't always about what most of the people want -- it can be about only what the people with power want. Obviously, they tend to get their way.
Comments
It may have gone un-noticed by the author of this anti-freedom of education screed, but the people who send their children to "private" schools, the people who work in private schools, and the people who run private schools are all taxpayers too.
As it stands now, if a family chooses not to partake of the government monopoly in education, and send their kids to a "private" school, they end up paying for at least two educations for their child.
What is wrong with giving parents the CHOICE of how their kids are educated?
So.... maybe that idea about opening up the state school board to the party election process wasn't so bad after all, eh?
These are the kind of scenarios that make generally idealistic supporters of the American Way into cynical distrustful opponents of anything that smacks of Big Government.
These Republican elitists paint themselves as supporting smaller government and individual freedoms, but when they get their hands on the juicy levers of power they're nothing more than the typical self-serving money-grubbers that Democrats paint them. They defy public opinion, the clear results of the ballot box, and the fundamental ideals of our public school system to pry open the treasury for their own needs.
Is there no one to stop them?
The elistist snobs on the hill won't win this one. Too many rational people are strongly against it.
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If you can't get your way by buying legislators, then just take over the State Board and tell the very same referendum winning public that vouchers are a good idea now. Seems illogical, but the public memory is short and 2 years from now we'll see the voucher concept coming around again with a new name, a new slogan, and we'll all drink the Koolaid before we realize what happened. After all, many of us thought the Oreos were a good snack!
Only through the apathy of citizens can this kind of manipulation take place...