David R. Irvine: 'Since 2007, the Legislature has worked overtime to ensure that the people’s constitutional right of initiative and referendum is increasingly burdened to make the exercise of that right nearly impossible.'
Rep. Trevor Lee, R-Layton, speaks with members of the public outside the House Chamber Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023.Prologue: In 2007, a dozen of my very closest friends were the instrumental organizers of the referendum effort that repealed the Utah Legislature’s first voucher law, along with thousands of teachers and PTA moms who gathered the petition signatures, and the tens of thousands of voters who resoundingly rejected that law.
The pro-voucher crowd then launched a primary campaign to defeat its Republican opponents in more than a dozen districts. Those efforts mostly failed, and my representative soundly defeated his pro-voucher primary opponent 59%-41%. On Friday, Day 4, at 0700, I received my representative’s mass-emailed invitation to take a survey about issues of importance in this year’s legislative session, including a detailed question about HB 215. I responded to that survey by 0900.
My purpose in responding here is not to rag on a friend, who is a good guy in a difficult position. What was wholly missing from his explanation was a rationale for why a voucher bill that takes $43 million from already insufficient public education money and hands it to private schools for the benefit of 5,000 kids is smart public policy for Utah. It’s not as though public schools and publicly funded charter schools do not offer sufficient parental options.
The plaque over the speaker’s chair reads “Vox Populi” – the voice of the people. Noble, except when the process is twisted to ensure that the people’s voice is ignored. Since 2007, the Legislature has worked overtime to ensure that the people’s constitutional right of initiative and referendum is increasingly burdened to make the exercise of that right nearly impossible.
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