Submitted by Tom Nedreberg, Nov 5, 2007 18:44

As a teacher in Utah I'm going to be voting no on Referendum 1 which means I do not support the use of vouchers to help people pay for their private education. There has been all kinds of trash talk on both sides about this issue. There has been all kinds of numbers, stories, pleas, and promises as well. The reason I'm voting no is because 1. I believe it's wrong to pay for someones "choice." The pro-voucher people say it will give people choice in their education but Utah has the most liberal choice laws in the nation. Students can go to school at their neighborhood school, a school in the same district but not in their neighborhood, a school in another district a charter school, a home school, and if they want to pay a private school. So choice is already there. I don't want to pay for it. 2. I don't believe it's right to have a school system based on tax credits or profit. Public schools use all the money sent to them to educate children. If a school doesn't do that but is worried about the bottom line and how it affects the profit margin, and then to do it with public tax dollars just seems wrong. and finally 3. I don't believe it's right for public tax dollars to go to private schools that can teach anything they want without accountability to the tax payers.

Public schools are one of the few institutions we have in our country that is a public trust and opens its doors to all. No other nation has taken it upon itself to educate all it's citizens. Setting up a system of private schools just divides our society futher into haves and have nots.

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