Government should restrain damaging urge to 'educate' voters

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© St. Petersburg Times
published October 21, 2002

Let's talk again about the government spending money to influence the outcome of our elections.

Last week the trustees of St. Petersburg College, one of Florida's community colleges, voted to send out hundreds of thousands of mail pieces to "educate" local voters.

The trustees are worried about Amendment 9 on the Nov. 5 ballot, which would require smaller class sizes in grades K-12. Such a radical change might drain resources from community colleges.

SPC figures to spend about $50,000 on explaining the risk to the voters. For the record, the school will not use tax dollars, but a fund that comes from other sources, such as vending machines.

I talked to trustee W. Richard Johnston, a thoughtful and responsible man. He said the trustees felt that speaking to the voters not only was a good idea -- it was their duty.

"We want to acquaint people with what this amendment could do," Johnston said. "If they still want to vote for it, that's up to them. But this is an education mailout, in my mind."

Most prominent leaders of Florida's educational bureaucracy agree about Amendment 9, which was placed on the ballot by a citizen petition.

The state Board of Education opposes it.

The state's university presidents have spoken out against it as a formal group.

The Legislature tried to fight it by printing an inflated "price tag" on the ballot.

And yet to all of these distinguished, smart, well-meaning people, I still insist:

This is an abuse of government power.

It is not the job of the government to "educate" the voters.

It is none of the government's business which side will win an election.

None. Of. The. Government's. Business.

The government has no moral right to "educate" voters on the "responsible" way to vote, nor to warn them of the "consequences" if they disobey. We voters can repeal the whole danged Constitution if we want to. We can rename the Legislature as "Bruce." We can make the Supreme Court wear funny hats.

The government's job is to obey.

If government officials feel the voters ought to vote a certain way, then, by gum, they can say so -- as private citizens. Raise money. Yell. Holler. No one can censor them. They can compete out there in the free market.

But here, the government is taking sides in a thinly veiled partisan dispute. Democrats are trying to get Amendment 9 passed to stick it to the Republicans. The Republicans, led by Gov. Jeb Bush , oppose it.

And who do you think appointed every member of the Board of Education, and every member of every university board, and every trustee of St. Petersburg College? Jeb Bush .

Listen:

If it is okay for St. Petersburg College to "educate" us about what is best for the school, then it has to be okay all the time.

That means the college also has the "duty" to tell us which candidate is better for education -- Jeb Bush or Bill McBride . Same goes in elections for the Legislature.

Ridiculous, you say? You claim there is a difference between a contest of candidates and a contest of ideas?

Absolutely not. Both involve control of our democracy via the ballot box.

It doesn't make the slightest difference whether the government is campaigning with money from a tax, or from a vending machine, or from what it found in the sofa. It is still money controlled by the government and spent in the name of the people of Florida.

The government's itch to "educate" the voters is deep. Our Legislature tried to put a poster into every voting booth, harping that voters must "know and study candidates and issues." You know what? It is none of the government's business what I do in the voting booth. I'll go in and flip a coin if I want to.

Or maybe I'll use the sense that a beneficent Providence has bestowed on (most) human beings and "educate" myself in the way that I choose, not with the "help" of the nannyish government.

This is how the road to hell is paved. Last week, we Americans all had a big, smug laugh about Iraq telling its citizens which way to vote. Well, let me tell you, big oaks from tiny acorns grow.

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