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Vouchers and Political Power
Mao said that power grows out of the barrel of a gun, but in this year’s legislative session, power may come in the form of something softer: a wiki.
This Wall Steet Journal opinion piece discusses last week’s vote on vouchers in the Utah House and mentions Politicopia as one of the factors:
State Rep. Steve Urquhart, the bill’s chief sponsor, says the breakthrough in winning House approval was the realization that it wouldn’t harm public education. The bill stipulated that for five years after a voucher student left the public system, the district would get to keep much of the money the state had paid for his education. Given that the average district gets $3,500 from the state and the average voucher is expected to be $2,000, a typical school district would gain some $1,500 every time a student left its system.
Mr. Urquhart was so confident of his math that he started an interactive Web site modeled after the interactive encyclopedia Wikipedia. He posted his bill on it and invited comments. Thousands of people logged on to www.politicopia.com and participated. “If anyone can show evidence (not just alarmist rhetoric) that public education does not come out financially ahead with this bill, post your arguments and data in the comment section,” Mr. Urquhart challenged his readers. No one was able to effectively rebut him.
By the time the bill came up for a floor vote, the debate was more philosophical and substantive than demagogic. “The debate was of the highest caliber that I’ve seen in my 13 years here,” said Speaker Greg Curtis. “I find it fascinating that not a single person spread the myth that [choice] would be harmful to public education.”From OpinionJournal - John Fund on the Trail
Referenced Mon Feb 05 2007 17:45:36 GMT-0700 (MST)
There’s considerable power in transparency as Rep. Urquhart is finding out.
Posted by windley on February 5, 2007 05:47 PM
Comments
Wow...this is just great. What an absolutely unheard of act of legislative openness and depth of thought.
I sincerely wish you'd send this guy to Washington.
BTW, I'm linking your site as a "Utah Blog" on LogiPundit. Forming a sort of ad hoc "Senate" of sites that are knowledgeable of local politics in their respective locales.
Come see us...
Posted by: logipundit at February 24, 2007 09:00 AM
I think Mr. Urquhart is savvy, but I'm not so sure that there is money "left over" for local schools. When the student goes, the funding is 0 for the local school, no matter how one spins it.
Posted by: Lippety doo dah at February 27, 2007 12:11 PM
Is that necessarily true?...if the voucher is indeed less than what is budgeted for each kid in the public schools then there is indeed money left over. You may be right, though. I don't have kids or pay taxes in Utah, so I really don't know.
I was more impressed with the transparency of the process than anything...
Posted on it on www.logipundit.com/2007/02/school-vouchers-in-utah.html
Posted by: logipundit at February 27, 2007 09:17 PM
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