One Utah

from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Choice may not improve schools, study says
Report on MPS comes from longtime supporter of plan
By ALAN J. BORSUK
aborsuk@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Oct. 23, 2007
A study being released today suggests that school choice isn’t a powerful tool for driving educational improvement in Milwaukee Public Schools.
But more surprising than the conclusion is the organization [...]

Using tax dollars to pay for private schools will be back.  Proponents of voucher schemes don’t have any choice but to bring them back - first because they are ideologues who are convinced their ideas are inherently good and when 62% of the people vote against them, the problem is bad communication or flawed implementation or lies spread [...]

62% to 38%

The early exit poll projection from KSL-TV was 74% against, based on Salt Lake City polling places only. Statewide vote tally is here.
Here’s a big thank you and a salute to everyone who worked so hard to bring democracy to Utah. In the immortal words of Joss Whedon…
“We have done the [...]

Here’s the latest in a long series of fumbles by PCE in their quest to make Utah the laboratory for a national right-wing experiment in school privatization, at our own expense. This card came in the mail today: “Whose opinion do you trust?” On the LEFT, it lists a who’s who of conservative [...]

The only ones more disenfranchised on vouchers than I, are the kids who don’t stand a chance in hell of getting to go to a private school.
But lets talk about me for a moment.
I am a property owner and major taxpayer. I have no kids. So why should I pay for public education? [...]

Richard commented on the PCE/Free Capitalist email offering cold hard cash for voucher voters.
I think there’s money to be made. 
Here’s what we do:  We knock on doors and tell people:
“Hi, my name is  . . . , I’m being paid by PCE and Free Capitalist knock on doors to get names of voters interested in [...]

Today we learned that voucher proponents are desperate enough to pay people ten dollars each to vote for vouchers. This came from a group called the Free Capitalist Project founded by pro-voucher moneyman Rick Koerber, the second-largest donor to PCE.
Excerpt from an e-mail message sent yesterday on behalf of PCE:

If you are [...]

Yesterday’s Trib published a pro-voucher letter  from Cory Worsencroft of Sandy that included the following bullet points:
* A west-side public school has 1,000 students. 
* Funding per student is $7,500 for a total of $750,000.
Now, let’s try the same calculations using actual real world math as opposed to voucher world math.
7500 times 1000 is . . [...]

I’m of the opinion that the voucher referendum is primarily if not exclusively about taking back our democracy from the special interest-ridden Utah legislature. But what if the special interests were right this time, and private school vouchers are actually a good idea? I don’t think so. Let’s debunk the main talking [...]

I’m really looking forward to the warm feeling I’ll get when I fill out my mail-in ballot, driving another nail on the coffin of PCE’s ill-conceived school voucher scheme. I’m counting the days until we veto the vouchers. Frankly, last March I wondered if we would ever get this opportunity– or if the [...]

In the discussion below yesterday’s post about vouchers, a rough consensus seemed to emerge that if vouchers could be truly targeted to help low income families it would generally be a more positive and acceptable reform. There are still huge problems with using taxpayer money to support religious institutions as well as overall problems [...]

I have a cousin who has 8 children, all 8 of whom attended public school. By contrast, I don’t have 8 children.
None of the 8 children I don’t have attended public school. According to Parent’s for Choice in education, every year one of the 8 children I don’t have wasn’t in public school, [...]