Public education scored big in the California election, with voters turning down a school voucher proposal by a 2-1 margin.
Proposition 174 would have allowed parents to obtain a $2,600 voucher for each school-age child, to pay for education in either public or private school, including schools sponsored by religious organizations.The whole country was watching to see how the proposition fared, on the assumption that as California goes, so goes the country. A victory for vouchers in that state would almost certainly have unleashed a spate of similar issues in other states.
Proponents felt parents deserve a chance to "shop around" for education and to have some of their tax money in hand to do so.
Opponents sweated the election, fearful that a drain on the scale proposed would leave many public schools devastated - particularly those charged with the education of disadvantaged students.
They also were concerned with the prospects of a welter of new schools of questionable quality as entrepreneurs tried to cash in on the shopping spree.
While the margin of defeat in California seemed healthy, look at it this way: One in three Californians who voted on the issue probably is unhappy with the public school system and eager to make a choice.
So the Prop. 174 skirmish is over, but look for the war to continue.
The California voucher advocates say they'll be back on the ballot next election, with a scaled-down version. And there are similar plans being hatched elsewhere in the country, including in such high places as those influenced by former Education Secretary William Bennett.
Utah could see another voucher proposal of its own during the upcoming legislative session. In a state where education funding already is tight as a tick, we can hope that lawmakers and/or voters would resist. The state's public system could ill afford any drain of tax revenues.
A better solution is to make the public schools more appealing to parents.
If I were a school administrator, I'd be doing what I could to make my patrons so satisfied they wouldn't be thinking about vouchers - including bringing those patrons to the table for some straightforward talking about what they want in their schools - then doing what is possible to achieve those goals.
Competition is the objective of the voucher philosophy. Proponents say the public schools would become better if they were anticipating a wholesale flight of students to the private schools.
So why wait for that to happen? If every public school were as good as it could be, there would be fewer parents bent on jumping ship.
The voucher and other schemes that have an eye on the public dollar to pull children out of the public schools won't be going away soon.
Utah's education leaders should be on notice that the concept of competition is here, with or without vouchers.