Parents for Choice in Education (PCE) is an advocacy group in Utah that pushes for

school choice School choice is a term for education options that allow students and families to select alternatives to public schools. The most common in the United States, by both the number of programs and by the number of participating students are scho ...

programs including

private school Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

vouchers, and supports

anti-union Union busting is a range of activities undertaken to disrupt or prevent the formation of trade unions or their attempts to grow their membership in a workplace. Union busting tactics can refer to both legal and illegal activities, and can range ...

legislation.

Organization

PCE, headquartered in

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

, operates three organizations: Parents for Choice in Education Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization; Parents for Choice in Education, Inc., a

501(c)(4) A 501(c) organization is a nonprofit organization in the federal law of the United States according to Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. § 501(c)) and is one of over 29 types of nonprofit organizations exempt from some federal income taxes. ...

nonprofit organization; and a state Political Action Committee or PAC.

History

PCE was founded in 2002 as the "Utah Education Funding Project" with money from "

All Children Matter All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All al ...

", an anti-union, pro-voucher group based in Michigan. According to a KSL report, ACM's "funders include the son of a former Amway billionaire and an heir to the Wal-mart fortune." Out-of-state funding continues to be important to PCE. In 2007, KSL reported that the "political action committee for Parents for Choice in Education took in half a million dollars last year; half came from out-of-state, $240,000 from All Children Matter." PCE played a large role in the passage of Utah's Carson Smith Special Needs Scholarship, a state funded program that provides private school scholarships to K-12 students with disabilities, as well as the nation's first statewide, universal voucher program, which was later overturned through a statewide referendum. PCE's 2007, voucher fight was funded almost entirely by one man, Patrick M. Byrne, the founder and CEO of Overstock.com. Some of PCE's tactics during this campaign were criticized as "despicable" by critics including Wayne Holland, chair of the Utah Democratic Party. Among the tactics criticized was a push-poll which asked, "If you knew that the same group that opposes vouchers, the liberal national union, aggressively supports same-sex unions, higher taxes and more government involvement, would you be very or somewhat more or less likely to vote for or against the Utah referendum?" PCE continues to lobby in Utah. In the 2008, General Session of the Utah State Legislature, PCE supported House Bill 349, Open Enrollment Revisions, which lengthened the enrollment period for special permits in public schools. In 2009, PCE opposed a cap on charter schools. PCE has supported anti-union bills even when they don't address school choice. In 2009, PCE initiated House Bill 328, which would have banned school districts from paying the salaries of union employees, and House Bill 210, which requires schools to post their collective bargaining agreements online. In the 2010 General Session, PCE backed SB77, which would have prohibited school districts from paying for association leave. This bill failed in the Utah House of Representatives. PCE's website calls itself "UtahEducationFacts.com."

References

External links

* * {{webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150310073456/https://utaheducationfacts.com/, date=10 March 2015, title=Utah Education Facts (subsite), nolink=1 Educational organizations based in the United States Non-profit organizations based in Utah Political organizations based in the United States School choice advocacy groups 501(c)(3) organizations 2002 establishments in Utah