It was only a matter of time before this blog got political. As anyone who knows me realizes, I am highly opinionated. :)
Vouchers don't apply to homeschoolers – even if this referendum passes, I don't get to keep my own dollars to fund my own classroom (which, needless to say, gets significantly less than $7000 per year per student). So I have no personal interest in this, no benefit that can come to me. And yet I am strongly, strongly for Referendum 1.
I've read dozens of articles and opinion pieces. I wish I could link you to all of them right here, right now. But for the moment, I'll let the following suffice. First, Linda and Richard Eyre give a demonstration of how vouchers will benefit public schools.
Second, and longer, is from the Utah Taxpayers Association, an excellent explanation of why the voucher law was enacted in the first place:
3 comments:
This has very little to do with what you posted about, but I've been meaning to ask you about it because I remember you telling me how expensive homeschooling can be. Anyway, most of the homeschoolers in our ward go through a charter homeschool so they have money provided for curriculum or curriculum provided (one of the two). Also their kids get to take dance lessons, piano lessons, string lessons,voice lessons, art lessons, gymnastics, you name it, whatever they want, all funded by the state because it is a charter school, so some parents here choose to homeschool for the added benefit of being able to do all of these things for free. Does Utah have anything like that? I was impressed because adding up extracurricular activities can be costly. Some of the people in our ward wouldn't be able to participate in them if it weren't for this charter program.
I've heard of that program, and from what I understand it is very unique to California. No other state has anything like it. I have also heard a few Californians balk at how many strings are attached – they can't choose their own books or their own subjects, if they take the money those things are dictated. (So I've heard, I have no personal experience of course.)
I like the way Richard and Linda make sense of it all. I never really understood the way vouchers work on an individual basis before, they explained it well.
I remember being at BYU and a ed. professor putting up the overhead showing Utah near the very top for dollars spent, but at the VERY bottom for money per pupil. It seems inevitable based on the demographics of the state.
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