Wednesday, January 31, 2007
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We are not what you would call voucher heads. Our children attend and have attended public schools. We feel that the social interaction provided in public schools is important. While we don't feel that our public schools are the best that they could be, we do feel that they provide a great service to our community in educating our children. Now having said that, we do support the concept of school vouchers.
We do need to do something different from what we have been doing. Competition for the schooling of our children, we believe will bring about a better education for all. Competition is the great leveler and bar raiser. It works very well in the market place. It is indeed the American way. Looking at what has been going on in the telecommunications industry will show you that.
Innovation in the telecommunications industry is rampant. Cable companies have jumped into the Internet and telephone business. Telephone companies are now developing the delivery of television service through its telephone wires, and scrambling to sell you Internet DSL at very low prices. Satellite companies are delivering TV and Internet through their receivers. IP telephone companies are sprouting up to serve you with dial tone. Everyone is benefiting from this. Consumers are seeing better service and lower prices; Telecommunications companies are experiencing healthy profits and their best customer satisfaction surveys in history.
If you would have listened to the telephone companies years ago, they said that allowing this kind of competition would have ruined and bankrupt the industry. They tried to block this competitive landscape from occurring at every turn. Instead the country has something much better due to a few lawmakers having the foresight to allow competition to proceed.
Sheryl Allen and Kim Burningham also seem to lack this foresight when it comes to competition in education. They are scared that things will change. We believe that their UEA background and support dictate this position. We also believe that they believe that their opinions are more important than that of their constituents.
Recent polls show that a majority of Utahns support the concept of vouchers. This is also the case within Davis County, which is the constituency that elected Kim Burningham and Sheryl Allen to office.
Sheryl Allen has gone on a rampage though, wrapping herself in the constitution and trying to scare people into seeing things her way with regard to school vouchering. She has even decried school vouchering as an assault on democracy itself. Please see www.clippertoday.com/default.asp Why is she so full of herself and full of it ?
Kim Burningham is also doing the same thing. Please see: deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,650221621,00.html
To see what the voucher bill before the legislature really will do please read the full article: www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660191518,00.html Please note from this article that the voucher bill is not for the rich as Kim Burningham has stated and is not an assault on democracy as Sheryl Allen states.
To get an idea of what vouchers have done for education in Florida, please see www.opinionjournal.com/cc/ Yes, they are seeing court challenges against their voucher program, but they are also seeing a dramatic change for the better in the education of their children.
We need to let Sheryl Allen and Kim Burningham know that the world will not come to an end if we allow school vouchers. We need to let them know that they are going against what their constituents as a whole think. We need to exercise our democracy and allow for competition in the education of our children. We believe that education for all will be better off as a result, including those of us who have our children educated in the public schools.