Opinions Not Welcome
For the first two weeks of the Utah Legislature's 2007 general session, the easiest and quickest way to get a message to your state representative was to call the House, asked to be transferred to the intern room and express your views to the intern assigned to your representative.
Sounds easy enough, right?
Since Monday, however, receptionists at the House of Representatives were ordered not to transfer constituent calls to the intern room. The receptionists, when asked, say they don't know why.
So what has happened this week that might precipitate a change in policy that makes it more difficult to get a message to your legislator?
Well, let's try this hypothesis.
House leaders decided on Monday they would start the bill allowing vouchers for parents sending their children to private schools through the legislative process toward passage. Until Monday, they had been holding it up while trying to muster enough votes to get it passed.
The bill went to the Education Committee Tuesday, where it was passed by a panel that had been stacked with pro-voucher legislators.
It originally was going to be debated and voted on Thursday, but after word went out the pro-voucher people did not have enough votes, it was delayed until today.
Meanwhile, the pro-voucher folks have been busy twisting the arms of the fence-sitters.
They might want to limit as much as possible, however, any input from the general public since polls regularly have shown the majority is against vouchers.
Hence, the ban on direct contact with a legislator's intern.
Maybe it worked. The voucher bill passed the House by one vote Friday.
On the Senate side, you still can be transferred to the interns.
Cheers,
Paul Rolly
Sounds easy enough, right?
Since Monday, however, receptionists at the House of Representatives were ordered not to transfer constituent calls to the intern room. The receptionists, when asked, say they don't know why.
So what has happened this week that might precipitate a change in policy that makes it more difficult to get a message to your legislator?
Well, let's try this hypothesis.
House leaders decided on Monday they would start the bill allowing vouchers for parents sending their children to private schools through the legislative process toward passage. Until Monday, they had been holding it up while trying to muster enough votes to get it passed.
The bill went to the Education Committee Tuesday, where it was passed by a panel that had been stacked with pro-voucher legislators.
It originally was going to be debated and voted on Thursday, but after word went out the pro-voucher people did not have enough votes, it was delayed until today.
Meanwhile, the pro-voucher folks have been busy twisting the arms of the fence-sitters.
They might want to limit as much as possible, however, any input from the general public since polls regularly have shown the majority is against vouchers.
Hence, the ban on direct contact with a legislator's intern.
Maybe it worked. The voucher bill passed the House by one vote Friday.
On the Senate side, you still can be transferred to the interns.
Cheers,
Paul Rolly
12:43 PM
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3 Comments:
First, I think you're paranoid about this voucher thing. you actively fought it in your gossip column and the voucher folks still won.
Second, I think you're out of touch with the majority of the state. A large majority of parents with kids in school support choice. It's the union lackeys and public employees who overwhelmingly don't, and who, by the way, can easily organize their people to campaign against anything that threatens their monopoly. Lets not pretend that the UEA and PTA are the innocent victims in the fight for school choice.
And by the way, the deseret news survey showed a clear majority of Utahns in favor of vouchers. Though the Trib's poll had quite different numbers, it asked a question that made it look like the voucher would only go to parents who already had kids in private schools, which couldn't be further from the truth.
Looks like our Utah reps are learning from the Bush Admin:
stick fingers in ears and shout " la la la la la I can't hear you!"
What they don't know won't affect policy
No doubt the House Education Committee was stacked with pro-voucher legislators and that public comment was squelched. But, hey, at least our Legislature is no Tiananmen Square. See the end of the voucher discussion at bill sponsor Steve Urquhart's blog site for explanation: http://steveu.com/blog/2007/01/vouchers-committee-hearing-tuesday.html#comments
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