FOR:

There are three simple words that summarize why the legislature passed the voucher bill this year: competition, accountability and finances. The first two are important; the third is crucial.

Introducing competition into our education system will help children, parents and teachers. Accountability is enhanced when parents have a choice and a school becomes responsive to the expectations of parents who have alternatives.

But many legislators are concerned that voters are about to make a decision on the new voucher law without considering one of the most important pieces of information that drove our decision to adopt it. Utah's finances are a hugely important part of this debate.

There has been very little public discussion of what is perhaps the most significant challenge facing public education in the next 10 years: a massive increase in student population.

An unprecedented expansion of school age students in Utah has begun. From 1995 to 2005 we had an increase in enrollment of 34,423 students. Starting in 2005 we project enrollment over 10 years will grow by 154,752 students. That is a staggering 450 percent increase.

Right now, Utah has the largest school-age population per household of any state. That is partly because we have larger families, with 50 percent more people per household than the national average. And the Legislature is sometimes criticized for not providing enough money for schools on a per-pupil basis. In per-pupil spending, we're on the low end of the nation.

However, it's important to keep such financial criticisms in perspective. If Utah's household size were adjusted to the national average -- with our current level of spending on schools -- we would find ourselves in the middle of the list nationally, with per pupil spending 20 percent higher.

While we don't expect our family sizes to decrease, it's not hard to see what a 450 percent increase in student population is going to do to public education.

In the last several years, the legislature has funded education at unprecedented levels and we will continue to do so. However, our projections show that when the increase in student population is factored in, even with unprecedented increases in state funding for education, our dollars spent per student will remain flat. Most of our funding increases are swallowed up in simply maintaining today's level of funding per student.

The obvious solution is to increase taxes. If our goal is to maintain per student spending increases that we have enjoyed over the last decade, we would have to triple education taxes in Utah. That means tripling our state income tax.

Income tax revenues fund teacher salaries, supplies and other operational costs -- but you have to build the schools first.

Roughly 55 percent of your property tax goes to school construction. Now assume you've got 150,000 more kids in schools than before. You're going to need to build schools to house them at a cost of about $20,000 per student. Do the math. It amounts to billions in new property taxes to build the schools.

One way to avoid higher income and property taxes is to offer parents the option to have their children move into the private sector and take some pressure off our public schools. That's what the voucher plan is all about.

If parents feel that a private school would be a better option for their child, that child could be taken out of the public system to make room for growth. The departure would immediately reduce class size, relieve the taxpayers of most of the cost of educating that child and increase the amount of money available to the children who stay in the public schools.

Instant class size reduction means more money per student.

When a child leaves public schools, the money attached to that child will stay in the local district for five years. After that, ALL of the money goes into the state's public education fund where it stays in perpetuity and will never be taken out of public education. I know many people have heard reports to the contrary. Those reports are simply wrong.

The coming tsunami of new students is a critical issue, yet it has been virtually absent in the public debate over vouchers. The growth wave is one of the most important considerations for taxpayers, especially property tax payers.

As you can see, the challenges we face are tremendous. Vouchers alone will not solve the problem, but they are a very important part of the solution.

Take away innovative solutions like vouchers, and we are left with a choice between two poor options: 1. Learn to live with dramatically low spending per pupil; or 2. Significantly increase income and property taxes. To me, neither of those options is acceptable.

Taxpayers who have done the math will not only vote to keep the voucher option on the table, but they will be actively involved in finding additional ways to make sure each Utah child receives the education that is best for his or her needs.

The voucher program costs very little. The statute prohibits discrimination. And it protects the intellectual lives of individual young people who won't be sacrificed in a one-size-fits-all system.

• Curt Bramble is Utah Senate Majority Leader and a certified public accountant. He is a Republican from Provo.

AGAINST:

On Nov. 6, voters in Utah will vote for or against the implementation of H.B. 148, Education Vouchers, passed by the Legislature in February. H.B. 148 establishes a voucher program to funnel taxpayer dollars to private schools. The amount of a voucher ranges from $500 to $3,000, depending on family income and size. Families at every income level are eligible.

Choice is the nucleus of the voucher program. Parents can choose to send their child to a private school and use the voucher to offset the cost. In actuality, if the voucher law is implemented, parents will not be making the choice -- private schools will be making the choice. Private schools will exercise their prerogative to accept or reject students according to their subjective criteria.

Fewer than half of Utah's counties have private schools in their communities. Rural legislators who voted for the voucher program have done a disservice to their constituency. Private school is not an option in their districts, and therefore, the voucher program is not applicable to rural Utah.

Prior to voting Nov. 6, please read the Impartial Analysis of Referendum 1 in the Voter Information Pamphlet. If you are a newspaper subscriber, you should have received a copy with your newspaper within the past two weeks. You should have also received one in the mail. If you do not have a copy of the pamphlet, they are available at public libraries and in all county offices. The entire pamphlet can be viewed online at www.utah.gov/ltgovernor (click on the red arrow at the upper left). You can also call Lt. Governor Gary Herbert's office at 801-538-1041, and one will be mailed to you.

During the first five years, the taxpayer will pay the cost of the voucher to the private school from the General Fund and a portion of the per-student state funding to the school district from the Uniform School Fund for each student who accepts a voucher. The Legislative Fiscal Analyst estimates the total cumulative General Fund cost to be $429 million just for the vouchers for years 1-13 (when the voucher program is fully implemented). A tax dollar is a tax dollar, and it is nave to presume that citizens will feel no impact by funding vouchers from the General Fund. Voucher proponents erroneously assert that the implementation of vouchers will bring savings to our public schools. Read the Impartial Analysis carefully and you will see that costs will exceed savings.

Voucher proponents assert that the implementation of vouchers will reduce class size. There is no guarantee this will happen. Even though some students may leave the public school system, fixed costs remain unchanged. There are still buildings to construct and maintain, teachers and staff to pay, utilities to pay, supplies to purchase, etc. If enrollment decreases by a class size, a teacher may be terminated and the students redistributed among a fewer number of teachers -- which may result in even larger class sizes.

A typical request for an appropriation of state funds entails a grueling process of accountability before, during and after the monies are appropriated. I am wondering why taxpayers would vote to forgo accountability for their tax dollars by giving a blank check to private schools where there will be essentially no oversight of monies spent.

The public school system is exactly that -- education for the public -- an opportunity for every school-age child to have a quality education. Utah is a public school state; 96 percent of Utah's children attend public school. The core issue is whether or not it is in the best interest of our public education system to subsidize private schools. In a state with the lowest per-pupil expenditure in the nation, it makes sense to spend our limited resources for the benefit of the 96 percent. I urge you to vote against Referendum 1 on Nov. 6.

• Mike Dmitrich is the Utah Senate Minority Leader. He is a Democrat from Price.