Ed Week

NEA Funnels Funds to Push for Defeat of Vouchers in Utah

Published Online: September 25, 2007
Published in Print: September 26, 2007

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/09/26/05stjour.h27.html?print=1

State Journal

The National Education Association has upped the ante in the fight over Utah’s private-school-voucher program, funneling more than $1.5 million into an effort to defeat the program in a referendum scheduled for November.

The program would give parents $500 to $3,000 per child to spend on private school tuition, depending on income. Even affluent families with children in high-performing schools would qualify. ("Utah’s Broad Voucher Plan Would Break New Ground," Feb. 14, 2007.)

Only students new to private schools qualify. State lawmakers set aside $9.3 million for the first year of the program, including $3.9 million to help public schools that lose students because of it. The program is expected to cost several hundred million dollars within a decade.

The program has attracted national attention, and radio and television commercials on both sides already are airing throughout the state.

Teachers’ unions in Colorado, Ohio, Maine, and Wyoming have contributed thousands of dollars to the fight in addition to money contributed by the NEA, according to campaign-finance reports due to the state last week.

Meanwhile, a conservative think tank is distributing an essay on the history of education in Utah that implies that if Mormons don’t vote to retain the school voucher law, they could face cultural extinction.

The Mormon-oriented Sutherland Institute bought space in the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret Morning News to publish its essay, which says public schools were introduced in Utah by federal officials who wanted to end the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ control of the state.

But voucher opponents say they are appalled by some of the essay’s statements, including author Paul Mero’s assertion that public schools have been part of the federal government’s campaign of “cultural cleansing” of minority groups.

But Mr. Mero stands behind the statements and says it applies to Mormons, American Indians, and other minority groups.