Jesse Stay has blogged about the school voucher issue here in Utah. It’s good to see some social and poliical responsibility action on the part of our blogging community!

I’m still torn on the school voucher issue. The referendum is a joke, in my opinion. The original legislative bill passed both the state House of Representatives and the Senate and was signed into law by the governor. The state educators refused to implement the policies of the law and filed legal action. A very long and twisted story short: Voters of Utah get to decide.

In theory, I’m very pro-voucher. Unfortunately, the Utah state legislature had to make some compromises and concessions on this bill to get it passed. Rather than making the voucher system equally available to all, they designed the system to be need-based — based on family income. This, I think, is the flaw.

Public schools get about $6,000 per year per student. The voucher system would give parents who want to send their kids to a private school a voucher worth up to $3,000 for private school tuition. The upside here for public schools is that (a) they get to keep the $3,000 or so left over and (b) they have one fewer child in the classroom. The result, in theory: smaller classes and more money, per student, for the school.

As I mentioned before, my problem is that voucher amount is to be based on family income. This is just flat-out bad policy. The maximum value for a voucher is about $3,000. The only way a family could qualify for this amount is if they’re relatively low-income. Considering the annual tuition for a private schcool is $10-15,000, the family that receives a voucher worth $3,000 is also the family least likely to be able to make up the difference to go toward tuition.

The amount for a school voucher should be be equal for all who qualify.

So, I don’t know which way I will vote on this. The intent of the voucher program is good. There is absolutely nothing wrong with encouraging more privatization of education... or anything else the government does.

Now, the other side of this issue has some compelling arguements as well. For example, there are some who say the voucher will be abused by home schoolers. I’ve heard some people say polygamist families will abuse the voucher system to “steal” public funds.

Others say it will be costly for the state to monitor and regulate the private education system to prevent abuse, thereby erasing any cost savings.

Some educators believe vouchers will take all the “good” students out of public schools, making the schools a cesspool for poor-performing students. This would, thereby, make it more difficult for public schools to meet their quotas for No Child Left Behind and other funding metrics. I’m not sure I think this is a bad thing. I don’t think the problem would be as stark as some would want you to believe, but these poor-performing students would be more likely to get the extra attention they need if there were fewer students in a class, right?

The pro-voucher lobby cites studies showing that Utah is on the cusp of a huge student population increase and if we don’t do something to take the pressure off the state public school system, we’ll be facing substantial tax increases to fund the public education system in the near future.