The fate of Utah’s school voucher program could be decided Thursday, when a judge is expected to hear arguments about whether or not the roughly $80 million Utah Fits All scholarship is considered constitutional.
Third District Judge Laura Scott may either rule on the case when afternoon arguments conclude, or wait to issue a decision.
The state’s largest teachers union first sued in May, alleging that the largest school voucher program in state history was unconstitutional. The Utah Education Association’s complaint came more than a year after Republican lawmakers in 2023 pushed the controversial bill file through in just 10 days to create the program.
At passage, the bill allocated $42.5 million to support vouchers for 5,000 students. Lawmakers nearly doubled the price tag this year to accommodate about 5,000 more students.
The lawsuit named as defendants Gov. Spencer Cox, attorney general Sean Reyes and the Alliance for Choice in Education (”ACE”), an organization hired by the Utah State Board of Education to manage the program — which ACE refers to as an “education savings account” program — and its application process.
Families began receiving scholarships this year, which they can use to send their kids to private school, homeschool them, or pay for a wide range of educational-adjacent expenses, like piano lessons or ballet.
The maximum scholarship available — $8,000 — is nearly double what a student is traditionally designated in Utah’s public school system, under what’s called the weighted pupil unit. That number is currently set at roughly $4,400 per child.
The UEA asserts in its complaint that the voucher program violates multiple provisions of the Utah Constitution, which requires the state to establish a free education system that’s equally accessible to every child.
Creating a publicly funded voucher program — where taxpayer dollars can help fund private school tuitions, but likely won’t cover the entire cost of tuition — means the system supported by Utah is now no longer free, the union argues.
The UEA also argues that the program diverts income tax revenue toward potentially paying for private education expenses. That tax revenue is currently reserved for only three purposes: public education, higher education and services for children and individuals with disabilities.
In July, attorneys for Cox and Reyes filed court papers to throw out the lawsuit, arguing that the voucher program “is not an education system” and that the Utah Legislature acted within its constitutional authority to use public money to “support children.”
Then, lawmakers proposed another controversial wrinkle to the system: the ill-fated constitutional Amendment A.
Voters ultimately did not get to weigh in on the amendment, which was voided in court ahead of the general election. However, the amendment would have changed how lawmakers can spend the state’s income tax revenue, letting them use funds on a broader range of unspecified “state needs” — such as the voucher program.
In September, the union filed a supplement to its lawsuit and asked to throw out Amendment A.
The Utah Supreme Court ultimately got rid of the proposed amendment on a technicality — the ballot language did not appear in newspapers statewide for at least two months prior to appearing on the ballot, as required by state law.
The hearing on the initial lawsuit is scheduled to begin in Scott’s courtroom at 1:30 p.m.
— This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
