The Truth of the Matter

Aaagh! I have been spun silly and now I officially believe that it is impossible to know the truth about anything in our society anymore. Take this article about the Jena 6, which basically reduces that whole situation to a media frenzy with little substance (and this is off my topic today, but it drives me crazy when we aren't careful about the battles we pick--it ends up being very counter-productive, working for the very things we are fighting against or vice versa.)

Anyway, today my beef is about all of the spin surrounding the school voucher program Utah voters will be voicing an opinion about on election day. Let me just preface my remarks by saying that I'm undecided about how I will vote. While I'm an avid supporter of public schools (does that make me a socialist?), implementing the program could be an interesting social and economic experiment. And using our tax dollars this way could pry open people's minds to consider, say, seemingly radical solutions for our health care crisis (yes, apparently I am a socialist).

That said, I'm going to quote from two pieces of mail I received today, both of which happen to support the voucher program. I'd quote a bewildering statement from an anti-voucher mailer too but the dozens of mailers we've received in the past few weeks have gone the way of the recyle bin.

Quote 1

"In addition to saving taxpayers thousands of dollars per child, vouchers do not take one penny from public schools. Instead funds from the voucher program comes from the state's general fund--leaving all money for public schools intact, but reducing the number of students to be educated." I'm sorry, but I don't understand how you can save all of those taxpayer dollars and increase actual spending at the same time.

The point about taking children out of public schools without reducing spending per child is well taken, but to start the sentence out with the phrase "saving taxpayers thousands of dollars" is extremely misleading. On the other hand, I do believe that the program may ultimately save taxpayer money because in my mind there is nothing to stop the Utah legislature from reducing public education outlays in the future or failing to increase education outlays as the population in our state grows.

Quote 2

In a letter from former Miss America Sharlene Wells Hawkes, she delivers one of the emotional arguments I've heard many times over these months: "Unfortunately liberal east coast unions are spending millions to ensure that parents don't keep this ability to choose."

It really gets under my skin when people use the word "liberal" to (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) imply "bad." (It also bugs me when people use the word "conservative" the same way.)

While I have issues with the role unions often play today, they have played an important role in making America a better place for many workers. And darn it! Public school teachers need and deserve to organize and advocate for frivolous things like, oh, a living wage and adequate health insurance.

And don't even get me started on the east coast bashing. Personal issues aside, whether anyone likes it or not, public school teachers all over the country have a vested interest in the outcome of Utah's vote. We're naive if we think we're living in a vaccuum.

So I wasn't even listening to her by the time I got to the last part of her sentence about a parent's ability to choose. Which is actually the main strength of the pro-voucher movement. (Do you think voucher supporters would mind if I started calling them "pro-choice"?)

I don't want to leave you all feeling as despondent as I do at the moment, so here's a tiny bit of light. For anyone reading this who will be voting on this issue here in Utah, I recently heard one seemingly rational discussion among local journalists who have been working hard to get to the truth of the matter (click here).