Somewhere, Milton Friedman is Smiling
The Wall Street Journal’s John Fund has written an interesting, lengthy and detailed column in OpinionJournal.com about the Utah House’s approval of the nation’s “first-ever statewide universal school choice plan.” Says Fund: “The late Milton Friedman, who was the nation's foremost advocate for school choice, would be more than pleased with the news coming out of Utah.”
Fund writes that, until now, “school choice has been an idea that works but has been only spottily implemented, in part due to the fierce opposition of teacher unions and the rest of the educational-industrial complex. . . . Utah’s plan is modest, and at the same time revolutionary”, because in time all Utah students would be eligible for vouchers on an income-based scale. The legislation must still be passed by the Senate and signed by the governor, but its chances seem reasonably good.
In his column, Fund quotes bill sponsor Rep. Steve Urquhart and refers to Urquhart’s Politicopia interactive web site, where opinions about the legislation have been posted. He praises Utah school choice proponents for being “persistent and relentless” and singles out Rep. Brad Last, freshman Rep. Keith Grover, and leadership from Speaker Greg Curtis as deserving credit for getting the bill passed. Fund also quotes Congressman Rob Bishop (a high school teacher for 28 years), who says: “It makes sense to expand the existing choices we offer to every child in K-12, and that is what Utah is now leading the way in doing.”
Another Wall Street Journal column says the average public school teacher in the nation earns over $34 per hour, and that doesn’t include generous retirement and health benefits.
National Politics
Phony Federal Budget
The nation’s strong economy is boosting federal revenues and reducing the deficit, but misleading federal budgeting practices, in place for many years, hide the true size of the deficit and the seriousness of the nation’s financial condition when pensions and entitlement obligations are accounted for properly (New York Times op-ed column by Steven Rattner).
Washington Watch
Hatch: Balanced Budget 'Achievable'
Sen. Orrin Hatch says he hopes Republicans and Democrats can come together to support Pres. Bush's goal to balance the budget by 2012: "The President's budget is a good start with the right goal -- a balanced budget. We need to rein in government spending, and the President found a way to do it without raising taxes, though I hope we can do it sooner than 2012. A balanced budget is achievable -- we collected a half trillion dollars more revenue in 2006 than we did in 2004 because of our pro-growth tax policy" (see press release).
Wise Words
“George Washington is the only president who didn't blame the previous administration for his troubles.”
-- Author unknown (Source: Quote Garden)
Sierra Club Newsletter
The Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club has posted its Spring 2007 newsletter, which features articles on the '07 Legislature, proposed changes to Highway 12, and expanding the regional mass transit system along the Wasatch Front.
Blog Watch
Mathew Yglesias says of the Utah House's recent approval of a statewide voucher program: "I won't pretend to note the state of educational play in Utah in any detail, but my strong suspicion is that this is very, very unlikely to lead to any noteworthy improvements in student achievement. It's a low population density state where the prospects for meaningful educational competition are not so hot. But more to the point, Utah features a very, very high proportion of the population belonging to a single hierarchical religion. It seems to me that given a sufficiently generous voucher program ... education in Utah will evolve toward a system where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the de facto education provider throughout the bulk of the state, the LDS church gets a lot of taxpayer money, and people living in Salt Lake City and maybe a couple of other towns may have some secular alternative options available to them" (for more on the voucher issue, see The Quick and the Ed, The Moderate Voice, Dr. Melissa Clouthier, and The Gradebook) (for more Legislature-related posts, see Out of Context, Under The Dome, UAC Blog, Lincoln's Legislative Blog, KVNU's For The People, Red Pills, and Davis County Watch).... The Senate Site reports: "The Senate Majority held a special meeting to discuss funding a REAL Salt Lake stadium in Utah. Viewpoints were mixed. This is a cultural, quality-of-life issue for us and it would be a shame to say goodbye to our pro team. However, we still need to see if we can work out a few details.This could go either way".... Rep. Steve Urquhart notes: "Politicopia made it into the Wall Street Journal today. Not bad for its 15th day. Thanks to everyone who has provided input on Politicopia. To those who haven't yet, jump on and share your 2 cents. Because every version is saved, you're not going to break anything. Politicopia is proving to be a good tool for promoting political dialogue between citizens and their elected representatives" (see also Utah Politics and Ross Mayfield).... Allan R. Bevere says: "I was listening to a discussion on a talk-radio station concerning the presidential candidacy of Mitt Romney. The host had asked for individuals to call the station and express their views on whether his Mormon faith would influence his politics should he become President. What intrigued me about the discussion was not so much what people believed about Romney's faith in relation to his politics, but the unquestioned assumption among callers and host alike, that while religion was biased, secularism was neutral in its view toward religion and, therefore, politics. One of the great deceptions of the Enlightenment that continues to be believed in the twenty-first century is that there is a neutral place in which one can stand in order to view religion and politics: that realm is called 'the secular.' Of course, such a view is simply false. Secularism is no less biased against religion than religion is biased against secularism" (hat tip: Article VI Blog). |
