$2.6 Million

...is the amount that has been raised for the Utah referendum vote ($800,000 pro-voucher; $1.8M anti-voucher). The National Education Association has donated $1.5M to fight vouchers over the past three weeks. Teachers unions in Wyoming, Colorado, Maine, and Ohio have also sent money to the Utah union. “That's not surprising,” Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said Monday. “If this issue didn't have national ramifications, it wouldn't have people [in other states] weighing in.” More here from the Salt Lake Tribune.

The reporters included this at the end of the article- how’s that for some perspective!

If all the money spent on the referendum campaign so far went directly to the classroom, it would have:

• Paid to educate 380 Utah public school students;
• OR covered the annual costs of 17 average-sized classrooms;
• OR funded a year's education, with plenty left over, of all 310 students enrolled last year in the Piute School District.
• OR provided 1,143 private-school vouchers, with a mean value of $1,750.