Jordy Blog

In case you’re worried about the tax implications of Utah’s referendum 1, please take a moment to read the Utah Taxpayers Association’s most recent newsletter or watch the “Truth by the Numbers” video they put together.

The Utah Taxpayer’s Association is very pro-voucher.

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If you’re still researching Referendum 1, I highly recommend Utah’s choice in education website.

There are also a number of voucher debates being held (and broadcast) all over Utah.

Whichever your persuasion, please put in the time to do the research and become an informed voter.  If you’re just relying on what lands in your mailbox, you’re not getting the full picture.

I wish everyone in Utah would watch this phenomenal 20/20 video to get a real understanding of the free market principles that would make the voucher system work. It really is a must see.

It’s also enlightening to get a glimpse at the out-of-state union interests that are pouring millions into Utah to try to get this referendum killed. They’ve used the same tactics and the same flawed (or deceptive) arguments in other states with tremendous success, much to the detriment of America’s children and thus to society as a whole.Please watch the video and share it with anyone who may still be unsure about the merits of vouchers.

This video from KSL news does a great job of exposing misleading statements on TV ads run by both sides of Utah’s choice in education issue. Note that most of them side with the pro-voucher folks like myself.

I’ll talk more about this later, but this video is good summary.

I’m a big proponent of parents’ choice in education, so I was initially discouraged a few weeks ago when I saw a that a telephone survey showed a majority of Utahns opposed to Referendum 1.

Since then, however, I’ve become convinced that it can pass, partially because many of the people opposed to the legislation simply won’t vote. (Think about it –have you seen more signs FOR or AGAINST referendum 1? Those are voters.)

I was also encouraged to learned that normally standard questions like “Do you plan on voting this year?” and “Did you vote in municipal elections last year?” were not asked in the survey, possibly leading to a numbers bias as far as votes are concerned.

Lastly, I’ve also seen a TON of anti-voucher ads appearing in my mailbox. That’s a condition that would not occur if the opposition felt the cat was in the bag. Rather, they’ve done their research and know it’s dangerously close; and thus the deluge of expensive ads.

The question, therefor, is can we get out the vote? I think we can and will; but if we want to get the voters to the polls, you and I need to go a little outside of our comfort zone and talk to our friends, family, and neighbors. If we want to win (and win we must) we need to beat the ads by getting the word out on a very personal level.

So – I’m putting my mouth were my mouth is: from now until election day (just over a week from now) I will vary (as is my right) from my normal biz and tech format to blog exclusively about why I think Referendum 1 must pass –and what we can do to ensure that it does. I’ll outline its merits, debunk some common misconceptions, and hopefully I’ll win some of you over at the polls.

As a side note, I know that this is a hotly debated issue. It’s in my nature to avoid those, but to me (personally) this is just too important to ignore. I’ll try to keep a level head about it, and I hope you will too.

Please feel free to post your thoughts and comments –just know that I probably won’t be able to respond to them all. If you do comment, try not to be belligerent since I will be moderating every post, but do free to challenge my opinion as long as you’re nice about it. I welcome niceness regardless of its source! :)

And now, without further ado: let the posts begin!

For those of you who haven’t already read this on ConnectBlogs, my friend and fellow blogger Devin Thorpe is holding an event called
Cookies and Ice Cream FOR Utah’s Kids to discuss Utah’s Referendum 1. If you’re for school vouchers or are still on the fence and would like to learn more, please consider attending this event –just make sure you RSVP.

Patrick Burne (my former boss at Overstock) and Jordan Clements of Peterson Partners will be speaking.

Techcrunch is reporting that Spectrum Equity Investors made a $300 million private investment to purchase a majority share in The Generations Network (Ancestry.com, MyFamily.com, etcetera.)

Isn’t the way Google wants to track everything about you a little unsettling?

At least it now lets you access your data and doesn’t publish it with “anonymous” (obvious) ids like AOL does. Still the privacy freak in me is a little troubled.

That said, Google has definitely been one of the more benevolent companies out there, at least in my mind anyway.  I’d be interested in seeing what systems they have in place to make sure employees don’t abuse this info.