Attorneys for Utah Governor Spencer Cox and Attorney General Sean Reyes are asking a judge to throw out a lawsuit challenging Utah’s $82 million school voucher program.
The Utah Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union, filed the lawsuit in May, alleging that the voucher program — the Utah Fits All Scholarship — is “unconstitutional” and saps much-needed funding from public schools. Utah State Board of Education member Carol Lear is named as a plaintiff in the UEA’s lawsuit.
“Lear opposes the Voucher Program because it directly undermines her work as a Board member by publicly funding private schools that are not required to comply with the standards that the State Board sets for public schools,” the May lawsuit states.
The motion to dismiss, filed in the Third District Court on July 19, argues the voucher program “is not an education system” and the Utah legislature is acting within its constitutional authority to use public money to “support children.”
“The Legislature has allocated funds for the UFA Scholarship Program amounting to less than 1% of the overall budget provided for the public education system,” the motion states. That budget sits around $8.43 billion for the 2024–25 fiscal year, according to the motion.
The Republican-led voucher proposal was pushed through in just 10 days during the 2023 legislative session. At that point, it became the largest school voucher program in state history with an initial allocation of $42.5 million. The allocation was nearly doubled this year to $82 million to accommodate additional interest.
“We’re still evaluating the motion to dismiss,” said attorney Troy Booher, co-counsel representing the UEA. “We expect that the case is going to go beyond the motion to dismiss phase and that the court will ultimately find that the voucher program is unconstitutional.”
Booher said more motions to dismiss are expected. The state’s counsel on the matter, Assistant Attorney General David Wolf and Attorney Scott Ryther, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The state’s allocation is enough provide 10,000 Utah students an $8,000 scholarship starting in the fall. Families can use the money to pay for private school tuition, tutoring, homeschooling and extracurricular activities – like violin lessons or swim classes.
The Alliance for Choice in Education (ACE), the organization hired by the USBE to manage the voucher program and application process, reported 15,914 applications were submitted, representing 27,270 students, with some families submitting one application for multiple siblings. Roughly a third of them received a scholarship.
ACE’s lawyers also filed an identical motion to dismiss UEA’s lawsuit on July 19.
UEA’s lawsuit argued that ACE is a “private program manager” charged with “supervising a public education program,” which prohibits the USBE from overseeing instructional content and curriculum in schools funded by vouchers – a constitutional violation.
But the motion argues that because vouchers are not part of the public education system, the board does not have constitutional authority over the matter.
Is using income tax for vouchers constitutional?
Vouchers have been touted as a way to give parents and kids more educational choices — which the motion argues is permitted by Utah’s Constitution.
Today, income tax revenue must be used “to support the systems of public education and higher education” and “to support children and to support individuals with a disability,” Utah’s constitution states.
Using those tax dollars for vouchers, UEA’s lawsuit argues, violates the state’s constitution.
“...The Utah Constitution [does not] constrain the Legislature from implementing programs to support children and children’s education choices that are not part of the public education system,” the motion to dismiss rebuts.
However, lawmakers are looking to change that part of the Utah Constitution to allow income tax to also be used for “other state needs.” The proposed constitutional change will head to voters this November.
“The fact that the legislature is running a constitutional amendment this general election demonstrates that they think they need a constitutional amendment to do what they’re doing with the vouchers,” Booher said.
Those opposed to the amendment argue it will further divert money from public education in a state that already ranks among the lowest in per-student spending.
The motion also argues that directing funds to the voucher program does not prevent the state from fulfilling its obligation to provide Utah students with a “free and appropriate public education.”
“Nothing in the statute that creates the UFA Scholarship Program states or implies that funding for the Program will be taken from funds that would otherwise be appropriated to fund the public education system,” the motion states.
The motion also asks that all claims made by Lear be dismissed because she “lacks standing” to bring claims “in her capacity” as a member of the USBE.
Lear was not immediately available for comment.
