Utahns will be free to educate their children without "amoral" and "humanistic" principles if voters approve Initiative C, according to a newly organized coalition.
Utahns For Choice In Education will spend the next few days persuading voters to approve the measure, which group members say has nothing to do with two tax-limiting initiatives known as A and B.If voters approve Initiative C, the state would grant tax credits to parents whose children attend private schools. Supporters say the approximately $600-per-family credits will encourage more parents to put children in private schools, leaving more money for the children left in public schools.
The state pays approximately $2,400 to educate each public school student, group officials said.
Group spokesman Sen. Bill Barton, R-Salt Lake, said said the group will raise money and buy newspaper ads before the general election Nov. 8.
Although they want to separate Initiative C from A and B, which would reduce property, income and other state taxes, group members said massive tax cuts would be affordable if children were taught things other than the "amoral" lifestyles taught in public schools.
Joy Beech, executive director of Families Alert, said public schools encourage lifestyles that result in social problems and higher taxes. She said public school biology texts contain "titillating amoral sex information," and health classes condone lifestyles that cause disease, among other things.
Critics of Initiative C say it will encourage people to remove their children from schools, teaching them at home instead.
If enough children switch from public to private schools, the state's education system could benefit by as much as $30 million, Barton said.