Posted by:
OnceMore
(
)
Date: April 06, 2011 02:33PM
Nobody really bought that story about closing stores due to budget constraints, since the stores were a huge profit center for the state.
"Closed for God" was the caption of one cartoon.
There are LDS Theocracy reasons for closing the stores, plus there are probably some legislators too dull of brain to figure out that cost savings from closing a few stores will not come anywhere near making up for the losses in earnings.
Now, journalist Paul Rolly has come up with another explanation. Conservative Republicans hate public education in Utah and have been looking for ways to do away with it or cripple it for some time.
"Utah Lt. Gov. Greg Bell might have inadvertently shed some light on why the Utah Legislature has voted to cut funding, close stores and lay off employees of Utah’s monopoly liquor store business, which could cause a reduction in the $28 million in liquor revenues diverted each year to the state’s public school lunch program. He may also have revealed why Utah remains last among the states in per-pupil funding for schools.
...
"Bell told the group that ever since voters in 2007 repealed by referendum the legislatively passed voucher bill to use public money to aid in private school tuition costs, a group of lawmakers in his Republican Party has been “hardened against public education.” He said those lawmakers believe in a philosophy of “starving the beast [public education].”...
Source:
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/51504403-76/public-utah-liquor-dinha.html.csp"Liquor commission attorney Earl Dorius was still clearly on edge from the intensity of the meeting when he addressed an applicant for a liquor license as “brother.”
"A red-faced Dorius acknowledged that his inadvertent use of the Mormon moniker for other church members in a public meeting was “a first” in his long career."
Excerpt from reader comments:
"Rolly is correct. I was in a meeting with a Utah Senator who said that if the voucher law was over-turned, they would do nothing for education. This article doesn't cause contention. It shines a light on the real agenda among many Republicans in the legislature. Education is changing in Utah. I agree with you on that one, and I predict that these changes will lead to a 3rd rate system. Even Puerto Rico, a 3rd world U.S. protectorate, is about to pass Utah in education expenditures. Most of the changes the legislature is making to public education is an effort to sabotage it so they can divert money to education interests that fill their pockets with money."
Do legislators run, own, or have interests in private or charter schools?