Call it scholarships, school vouchers, the devil: It would take money from our underfunded public school system to put public money in a few private hands.
This would benefit less than 10% of the school population at the cost of over 90% of our children. This is criminal.
This is what results when there is a super majority in our state Legislature. They are holding our hard-working teachers captive to the desires of a few politicians and parents.
Our Republican majority politicians, instead of spending time figuring out how to adequately fund public education, have passed laws that give us no say in what they do.
As voters, in 2007, we gave a clear message to our Legislature: No vouchers. What they did in response to the will of the voters is to pass legislation that now makes it impossible to overturn their legislation if it passes with two-thirds support in the House and Senate by blocking any attempt at a referendum.
Thank you Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, and the Democratic Caucus, for your attempt to separate these two issues, teacher salaries and school vouchers. They should be separate issues.
What can we do? Please contact your legislators and let them know you strongly disagree with HB215. That you want every dollar available for education to go for public education in Utah. You are tired of spending the least or next to least amount in the United States on our children.
JoLynn Miller, Holladay
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