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Representative -- and voucher bill sponsor -- Urquhart posted a blog on the referendum discussion and where we might focus now that the referendum is behind us.

". . . Such discussions form a potential basis for significant improvement – if we can figure out how to keep the discussions going and how to collaborate on possible approaches and solutions. I would hope we have broad agreement that (1) parents need to be more involved in their children’s education, (2) Utah’s educational system needs to adequately (and, some day, exceptionally) prepare our children for college, the workforce, and the world, (3) incentives need to be in place to attract/retain great teachers and encourage bad teachers to improve or, if not, leave, and (4) public education needs greater funding.

"I’m not sure the Legislature can do much about Point 1. I’m confident that the Legislature will take care of Point 4.

"Points 2 and 3 are the wildcards. Without the serious involvement of informed citizens, nothing will happen on points 2 and 3."

Read the full blog here.

Steve Urquhart shows some real class under frustrating circumstances, and what he says makes sense. We found it interesting and heartening the Trib poll that projected the voucher vote also indicated "Utahns overwhelmingly support exploring education reforms other than vouchers. Seventy-seven percent like the idea of merit pay for teachers, 70 percent would like to see full-fledged open enrollment in public schools and 61 percent like the idea of charter schools."

We have some work to do. Keep paying attention.

5 Comments:

 Davis Didjeridu said...

Don't worry about us paying attention to you. You should pay attention to what we just said.

11/08/2007 12:58 PM  

 Ethan said...

Davis, let me give you a lesson in American democracy.

The election stands.

But don't pretend that I have to bow to your ideology by sheer force of majority.

I see no reason in America to abandon a position simply because it runs counter to the majority.

In fact, to accomodate your threat in any way would be fundamentally un- American.

11/08/2007 4:16 PM  

 Davis Didjeridu said...

No threat Ethan, just advice. It is my hope that this election will serve as a reminder to elected officials that their decisions are subject to the consent of the people. I also hope that more people will wake up and realize that it is their legislator who is usually part of the problem when they complain about the legislature as a whole. If my first hope succeeds, perhaps legislators won't have to worry about retribution from the public next November. However, my second hope, though less likely to happen immediately, will eventually come to pass if legislators don't pay attention to these election results.

11/09/2007 10:20 AM  

 The Senate Site said...

Good thought.

Good comeback.

Good advice.

Thanks.

11/16/2007 6:38 PM  

 Anonymous said...

Future attempts could instead use this as the banner:

Citizens for Funding Public Schools


and vouchers would be one of the means.

RCS

11/20/2007 7:21 PM  

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