Musings of a Patriot

Tag: State

  • Half of the Story

    In explaining why Utah politics has become totally dominated by the Republicans the Deseret Spectacle only covered one half of the story. He covers the back room machinery of the Religious Right. It would be foolish to argue that this didn’t happen, or even that it was unrelated to our current unfortunate predicament. There is…

  • Apparent Inconsistencies

    The voucher debate has kept educational issues prominent in my brain for quite some time now. Before spending so much time thinking about these issues it was easy to recognize the image of hypocrisy in those who stump for public education and keep their kids outside the public education system. A far greater percentage of…

  • My Position on Vouchers

    I have stated that vouchers have potential benefits to our education system and also that they do not address the core issue that is leading our education system down the path of crisis. So here is my position on vouchers. The bills that we are going to vote on are flawed – most bills are.…

  • Vouchers and Public Education

    My views on education have been a topic of regular discussion for many years with my wife and her family. She grew up in a family where all the children went to a very expensive private school. (It’s very expensive now, I don’t actually know what it cost back then.) My father-in-law has a PhD…

  • More Voucher Debate

    I talked about flawed/unbalanced arguments related to vouchers in Pick Your Poison. As more and more is written the issue fails to get clearer. However, one point that I cited (made by the anti-voucher camp) involves throwing out numbers to prove their point without backing up their numbers. In this case it was “the average…

  • Quality Argument

    Here is why I love to read The Utah Hornet’s Nest – he writes about “Why I Oppose Vouchers” rather than resorting to writing about “Why voucher supporters are trying to sacrifice your children for money.” We can always use more solid examples of “what I believe and why” on both sides of any argument…

  • Pick Your Poison

    One thing that often bothers me in many public discussions is that people rarely offer all the pertinent information when they argue for their cause. The result is arguments like this against vouchers. I will be the first to admit that voucher supporters are just as guilty of only discussing facts that are favorable to…

  • FrontRunner ESR

    This is the time when I wish I had a large audience of local residents. Utah Transit Authority (UTA) has issued a press release announcing their Draft Environmental Study Report for the southern portion of FrontRunner. Because there is no direct link to the individual press releases I will quote much of it here. The…

  • Compulsory Education

    I recognize that it is meant to address more extreme cases, but the idea of fining parents and charging them with a misdemeanor just strikes me as wrong. I know we have compulsory education in the United States, but I wonder if we are really helping anything by making it compulsory. If my kid skips…

  • Funding Mass Transit

    I think I recognize one of the major reasons why UDOT leans so heavily on building roads rather than transit. It has to do with perspective: Why is it that transit funding is a subsidy but highway funding isn’t? Why do some people complain about seeing empty trains or buses in off-peak hours, but they…