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Students, Educators Win Big in Utah

Utahns Say No To Vouchers

Tuesday's elections were a clean-sweep victory for children and public schools. Voters in Utah defeated a voucher plan that would hurt public schools.

By a 62 to 38 percent margin, Utah voters said no to the implementation of what would have been the nation’s most comprehensive private school voucher program. The decisive election day defeat came after more than eight months of tireless work by dedicated Utah Education Association members and public education advocates who secured petition signatures to get the measure on the ballot, staffed phone banks, and canvassed their neighborhoods with information about how House Bill 148 – the original voucher bill – would take money away from Utah public schools.

“With the eyes of the nation upon us, Utah voters today made history by rejecting the flawed voucher law,” UEA President Kim Campbell said during an election night victory party in Salt Lake City.

“Utahns have sent a clear message: We believe in our public schools and want them supported. We want to ensure Utah’s future economic development with a highly-educated workforce,” Campbell said. “We want our state resources focused on our public schools in order to meet the needs of all children.”

Had it passed, the bill would have provided a $500 to $3,000 taxpayer-funded voucher to parents wishing to enroll their children in a private school. The Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel estimated that, over a 13 year period, the bill would have cost taxpayers $429 million.

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