Reply #366: HISTORY ALEC and Vouchers see mixed success this session ALEC Models (UT Stateline 2007) [View All]

This year the school choice movement reached a milestone – Utah became the first state to sign a universal voucher law. Unlike other voucher programs, Utah’s would allow every child – regardless of income or geography – to receive public money to attend private school.

In January, the Georgia Senate passed a bill to set up a voucher program for students with learning disabilities. In February, more than 5,000 attended a school choice rally at the Texas Capitol. In March, an Arizona judge dismissed a suit against a new law giving tax credits to corporations that underwrite scholarships for poor children.
But opponents, who say vouchers drain funds from public schools, can point to some dramatic victories of their own. In March, while voucher-supporter Gov. Matt Blunt (R) looked on, the Republican-held Missouri House voted 96-62 against a bill that would have helped 8,000 students from St. Louis and Kansas City attend private schools. Later that month, voucher amendments to a South Carolina bill failed by seven votes in the House, partly because Rep. James Smith (D) flew home from Army National Guard training in Kansas to argue and vote against them. Also last month, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland (D) announced he wants to end the Ed Choice voucher program for students at failing schools, which began only this school year.

Last year was a banner one for the choice movement. Of 28 states that considered bills, eight enacted laws to create or expand voucher or tax credit programs. Currently, 12 states and the District of Columbia have some type of choice program, ranging from personal tax credits to vouchers for kids in failing schools.
So far this year, several states are considering school choice legislation. Five have bills to give vouchers to foster kids, while at least 12 are considering giving vouchers to students with disabilities. A bill for those with autism recently passed a Senate panel in Texas.

Yet the situation in Utah still is volatile, because the anti-voucher coalition needed 92,000 signatures by April 9 to place a referendum on the ballot. According to the coalition, they collected more than 131,000 signatures. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (R) has said if the group succeeds, he will call for a special election in June. But even if voters subsequently reject vouchers, legal questions will linger; the Legislature passed two voucher measures, the initial bill and one that amended it. The referendum only deals with the former.
A key difference is that the second bill does not include money to help public schools whose students leave for private schools. Voucher opponents could claim in court that lawmakers never would have voted for the second bill had they known public schools were not going to receive help.
Utahans for Public Schools says the second bill cannot stand on its own. But Parents for Choice in Education, which supports vouchers, and Attorney General Mark Shurtleff (R) say it can, although Shurtleff added in an opinion that the second bill alone would be more susceptible to constitutional challenges. “No matter what happens, this will end up in court,” he told The Deseret Morning News.