SALT LAKE CITY
Utah voters on Tuesday killed the nation’s first statewide school voucher program that promised tax dollars for private tuition, no matter how much a family earned or whether kids were in bad schools.
It was the first voucher election in the U.S. since 2000, when voters in Michigan and California rejected efforts to subsidize private schools.
Utah, with a conservative electorate, a Republican governor and GOP-controlled Legislature, was seen nationally as a key test of voter sentiment for vouchers. But opponents, with millions of dollars from a national teachers union, persuaded residents to say no.
With 95 percent of 2,237 precincts reporting, 62 percent of voters cast ballots against the program.
“The problem of voucher supporters is that they never really figured out what Utah voters would support in advance of passing legislation,” said Brigham Young University political scientist Quin Monson.
“They never really anticipated it would go to the ballot,” he said, adding that lawmakers were “shooting a little too high.”
