Utahns are still split over vouchers

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jan 11, 2007 | by Copyright 2007 Deseret Morning News By Jennifer Toomer-Cook Deseret

The public -- like the Legislature -- is split on whether government vouchers are a good idea to help parents cover private school tuition.

A Dan Jones & Associates survey found 48 percent of Utah residents polled somewhat or strongly support a government voucher or tax credit to use for private school tuition. Forty-six percent oppose them, and 5 percent don't know. The Jan. 2-4 poll of 400 Utah adults, conducted for the Deseret Morning News and KSL-TV, has a 5 percent margin of error.

This is the first time the scales have tipped toward voucher support on Dan Jones surveys commissioned by the news organizations.

"I think it's great news," said Nancy Pomeroy, spokeswoman for Parents for Choice in Education, a group that has long lobbied for vouchers, charter schools and other school-choice measures. "I think it bears out what we've (said) all along: Parents want choice, they want what's best for their children, and they know what's best."

In December 2005, 40 percent of Utahns polled said they would definitely or probably favor the concept, 54 percent said they would probably or definitely oppose it, and 7 percent didn't know. Past years put support between 36 percent to 44 percent of those surveyed.

Rep. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, is preparing a voucher bill with input from other House and Senate leaders. He believes this is the year it will pass.

"I think the dialogue has been evolving," Urquhart said Wednesday. "It's much easier to rally around the status quo than it is to change. I think our constituents are realizing this could really help some families and some individuals and that a lot of the rhetoric about harm it might do to public education is overblown."

Urquhart's bill is still in the works and as yet shielded from public purview. But he told the Deseret Morning News that it will look a lot like the bill Rep. Brad Dee, R-Washington Terrace, carried last session.

Urquhart's bill could give vouchers ranging from 20 to 65 percent of Utah's average public-school per-student spending -- around $5,000 per student -- and be scaled to benefit poorer families the most, he said. Based on those numbers, the voucher would range from about $1,000 to $3,250. It also would rise as state school spending does. The top wage bracket allowed to take the voucher would be $100,000.

Dee's bill made those switching from public to private schools, those new to the state, or those who are low-income and currently in private schools eligible for a voucher. Recipients would have to take a national standardized test and report results to anyone who asks. And participating private schools would have to meet rules including having teachers with at least four-year degrees and meet anti-discrimination laws.

Dee's bill last year would have given school districts money to keep their budgets whole for up to five years after a student took a voucher, and at one point called for a $13 million state investment. The logic was to not hurt public schools, whose leaders have said giving public funds to private schools would devastate a cash- strapped school system.

That's where Urquhart's bill likely will differ.

"Initially, I might not have that in my bill. To me, it doesn't make a lot of sense, if (districts) lose a student, to be financially rewarded," Urquhart said. He said 35 to 80 percent of each student's spending would remain in the public schools' realm under his bill, thus increasing per-student spending under what he called "basic economics."

Still, he said, mitigation for school districts losing a lot of students to vouchers isn't out of the question.

"We're closing in on ideas that will definitely be good for education in the state, and will even (be) good for public education directly ... and good for students and families," Urquhart said.

But attorneys at the State Office of Education said the bill isn't coming in line with Ohio's law, recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, that allows a nominal voucher for parents staying in the public school system. That voucher could go for tutoring for example, said Carol Lear, director of school law and legislation for the State Office of Education.

"The point the U.S. Supreme Court made is you need true parental choice, and you don't have (that) with this kind of bill," Lear said. She also says private schools accepting voucher ought to administer all the same tests -- writing exams, high school graduation tests, end-of-the-year CRTs -- public schools do, and be held equally accountable for student progress.

Public education officials and teachers generally stand against vouchers and tuition tax credits in so-called "school-choice" bills, which have surfaced every year since 2000. State Board of Education Chairman Kim Burningham penned an editorial, printed in Wednesday's Deseret Morning News, opposing vouchers and urging others to call their legislators to do the same. The Utah Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, also is a vehement opponent.

Four years ago, Urquhart was the House sponsor of a competency- based education and reform omnibus bill, which included tax credits for private school tuition and a $97 million tax increase. The bill passed the Senate, but the hard-line House wouldn't touch it.