Tooele Transcript Bulletin

Voucher Debate Heats Up

October 16, 2007

by Sarah Miley

STAFF WRITER

On Nov. 6, voters will decide the fate of a school voucher initiative that has polarized the state and Tooele County.

The debate over vouchers is several years old, but intensified at the beginning of this year with two bills passed by the Utah State Legislature. In February, HB 148 was passed to establish the Parent Choice in Education Program. HB 174, which passed weeks later, modified the program by tightening accountability for all private schools.

The school voucher initiative was put on the Nov. 6 ballot after Utahns for Public Schools — the main anti-voucher group — spearheaded a petition drive and gathered well over the 92,000 signatures needed to force a referendum. The referendum will decide if vouchers will become state law or not.

If implemented, the school voucher program would give students state-funded scholarships worth $500 to $3,000 annually to attend private schools. The amount of the scholarship depends on household income and family size. To be eligible, students would also have to attend eligible private schools.

Students currently in public school, just entering kindergarten or new to Utah would all be eligible for the vouchers, as would low-income students currently attending private schools — based on subsidized-lunch income guidelines. The value of vouchers would increase as time goes on, though by the same percentage as increases that the Legislature makes to public schools for per-student funding.

Utahns for Public Schools claims private school vouchers will fail Utah’s families and students because they will cut public education funding.

Voucher proponents, like the main pro-voucher group Parents for Choice in Education, say with less students in public schools, per pupil public school spending will increase and class sizes will shrink, providing a better education for students.

Tooele resident Jess Clifford, who ran unsuccessfully for the Utah House of Representatives District 21 seat in 2006, is pro-voucher. He has five children, four of whom are school-age, and his children have been involved in public, private and home education.

“I believe the public school system is failing,” Clifford said. “The model isn’t working for everyone, and allowing private schools to come to the table as part of the solution makes sense in terms of fixing the problem.”

Funding for the scholarship program would come from taxpayer dollars. The money, however, would come from general state tax revenues, not the education fund.

Tooele County School District Superintendent Mike Johnsen is against the voucher program.

“As good as the Legislature has done the last few years of funding education, I think vouchers would take money away from the system,” he said. “We’re still 51st in the nation as far as money to students, and now we’re going to take more away and give it to private schools?”

Clifford said he doesn’t buy the argument that public funds shouldn’t be used for private institutions.

“I believe the public funds have been set aside by taxpayers to ensure their kids are educated, and educated in a way that’s competitive in the global market,” said Clifford.

Currently, school districts receive state funds based on the number of students enrolled in their district. If the voucher program is approved by voters, school districts will be able to receive part of the per-student state funding for those students who choose to use vouchers and attend private school. The funding would continue to go to the school district the student would have attended for five years after the transfer has taken place.

Johnsen said he is not convinced that phase-out money will lessen the financial impact of vouchers on public education, particularly in the long-term.

“What happens after the first five years?” Johnsen said. “You still have to educate students.”

He added that there’s no way the few private schools in the state can absorb the number of children coming into Utah, meaning, in the short term at least, that vouchers won’t reduce crowding in public schools.

Marcella Burden, principal of St. Marguerite’s grade school and a second- and third-grade teacher, is personally for the voucher systems, as is the Diocese of Salt Lake City, which oversees the school. She said if the voucher program is approved by voters, enrollment at the school probably won’t increase by much.

“We might get a handful of parents who want to send their kids here,” she said, “but I don’t think we’ll have a mass exodus.”

Burden said depending on the amount of the voucher, parents would still have to come up with the remaining cost of tuition.

“It’ll motivate people who already want to have their kids get a private education,” she said.

St. Marguerite’s offers classes from pre-school through third grade, although pre-schools aren’t eligible for the voucher. Eventually, the school is hoping to offer classes up to eighth grade. Currently, tuition at the private school is $2,100 a year for kindergarten and $3,200 a year for elementary grades.

Burden added that although she believes St. Marguerite’s to be the only private school in Tooele County that is eligible for the voucher program, she thinks parents should have an alternative to public education.

“We have parents who come in looking for an alternative and besides us, there’s only home school,” said Burden. The Parents for Choice in Education Web site states the voucher program levels the playing field by providing families — especially those with lower incomes — a chance to attend a private school.

Johnsen, like other voucher opponents, disagrees. He said private school affordability is an issue, especially when the amount of the voucher isn’t adequate relative to the cost of tuition.

Anti-voucher and pro-voucher groups have come up with varying average costs for private school tuition, ranging from $4,000 to $8,000.

Cost predictions of the voucher program are listed in the state’s voter guide. The Legislative fiscal analyst estimates the voucher program will cost the state $5.5 million in its first year. By the program’s 13th year — after all private school students in Utah are eligible for the scholarship — the analyst estimates the program will cost the state $71 million.

The analyst predicted school districts throughout the state will save a combined total of $2.4 million to $11.5 million during the first year of the program, and $11 million to $28 million by the 13th year of the program. Savings would come from fewer students school districts would need to educate.

“Right now, the economy is very good and there’s been a good abundance of money and education has fared very well, but we’re going to have some lean times again and when those lean times come who’s going to get money: public, charter or private?” Johnsen said. “We’re not only funding public education, but two other sources of education and I don’t think that’s realistic.”

Clifford counters that argument by saying, “I do think the old solution of just ‘we need more money from the government’ is failing. I think private enterprise is more accountable with its money and more accountable to make that money perform and go further than public entities. And I don’t think anyone would argue a private education will outperform a public education. The vouchers are simply a way of making public money go further.”

St. Marguerite’s will hold an informational public meeting on school vouchers on Oct. 26 at 7 p.m.

For more information on Referendum 1, which will be on the ballot for the Nov. 6 election, visit http://elections.utah.gov/Citizen.htm.

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