I haven't posted in a while. The nature of life can sometimes get in the way of getting feelings out in words. I have been busy working on finishing my Masters of Education, teaching high school, and teaching Instructional Technology for Utah State University. The last time I freely expressed myself, I was ranting about the referrendum vote in Utah to get vouchers passed. The history of that vote (briefly) goes like this:
The Utah State Legislature decided to pass a sweeping voucher bill that had no limits on income and no teacher accountability requirements. The voucher could be used for any school regardless of theology, philosophy, etc. In essence, spending public money on religious education. The legislature then passed a second bill just in case the referendum on the first bill passed. The Utah Supreme Court said the second bill was an addendum to the first and could not stand on its own, therefore the referendum was on both bills. That was after the Utah State Attorney General said that he was the 'decider' (the Utah Supreme Court corrected him by pointing out quite judiciously that they were, in fact, the deciders).
Then the media blitz happened. The pro voucher camp argued that class sizes would go down trying to convince what they thought was a stupid voting public. In fact, class sizes don't go down, education is funded by attendance. If there are less students, there will be less teachers and class size stays the same. And so on. Then there was the misinformation campaign fostered by many but best shown through the miscalculation by Utah State Senator Curtis Bramble when wrote in an opinion piece for the Provo Daily Herald and messed with the numbers. Paul Rolly, Salt Lake Tribune columnist called him on it. Then Bramble tried to promote more misinformation by correcting Rolly. (Here is the original article as evidence that Rolly isn't messing with Bramble. It also is a good example of both sides of the argument).
What really offended me about both camps was the dumbing down of the information in media campaigns. That does a disservice to our children. If you take a complicated issue like vouchers and dumb it down, you send the message that critical thinking ability is not necessary. However, both sides argued that public education needed help. They recognize that our students are not performing as high as they should or are capable of. Then why champion education that teaches critical thinking while at the same time dumbing down the message?
Well the campaigning is over, the endless spending (about $8 million) could have helped kids instead. The voucher bill was soundly defeated 62% against the measure. So the pro voucher people are now claiming victory by stating that 38% of voters are saying that education funding in this state needs to change. Only in Utah can a defeat be called a victory.
So what's the point? Three things:
1. Watch for retaliatory legislation from the Utah State Legislature who have a history of not legislating for the good of the people but would rather legislate against the opposition. (When teachers had a one-day strike a few years back, they made life tougher on teachers in the next legislative session). It may not happen in January since there is an election coming up next November for many, but you can count on it in January 2009.
2. Vouchers won't return by that name, but watch out for tuition tax credits. Same thing, different name.
3. Patrick Byrne, creator of Overstock.com, not only dumped a lot of money into the pro voucher campaign, he said 62% of the voting public had a low IQ as a result of turning down welfare for private enterprise. Time to boycott Overstock.com just so we can spend our time and money on increasing our political IQs.
One last thought. The whole point of vouchers is hidden in the rhetoric. The point of vouchers, and of No Child Left Behind, is not the improvement of education, it is the elimination of public funding of public education. The goal is the eventual elimination of public education. The advantage of privatization is that you can have religious education. And, if you can con the public, get public money to pay for it.
But let's look at just how well privatization works. First, the privatization of the Flight Service Stations from the FAA to Lockheed has been a nightmare. Services are poor, flight briefings are inaccurate, wait times are astronomical. Then there is Blackwater. You know the private security firm in Iraq that just randomly shoots at civilians. Yup, that's working well.
