Utah families have already tapped into just over a quarter of the state’s $82 million school voucher fund, according to the Alliance for Choice in Education (ACE), the organization hired by the state to manage the program.
That’s more than $22 million spent since the start of the school year on qualifying costs including private school tuition, tutoring, homeschooling and extracurricular activities, such as violin or swim lessons.
But few specifics are publicly available about how exactly that money has been spent. And state lawmakers won’t get an annual report detailing voucher program spending for another year, according to Utah law.
The Republican-led “Utah Fits All” voucher program was approved in just 10 days during the 2023 legislative session. It became the largest school voucher program in state history, with an initial allocation of $42.5 million. But that allocation was nearly doubled this year to $82 million in a move that lawmakers said was meant to accommodate additional interest.
That updated total was enough to provide roughly 10,000 Utah students with an $8,000 scholarship for the 2024-25 school year, ACE officials have said.
How much has been spent on homeschooling vs. private school?
Officials with ACE could not say how much state funding has so far gone to either homeschooling or private school tuition. That’s because they told The Salt Lake Tribune that they do not “aggregate or provide” data by those spending categories.
However, they reported that over $15 million has been allocated to tuition, which includes private schools, online programs and other classes.
The remaining more than $7 million has been spent on “other educational expenses,” defined broadly as expenses “related to extracurricular activities, field trips, educational supplements and other educational experiences.”
Families are asked to “self-report” all their expenses using three main categories: “academics,” “classroom environment” and “enrichment.” ACE officials then review and validate those self-reported categories to ensure they accurately reflect any purchases made.
“Academics” includes educational programs, tuition, fees, curriculum, books and school supplies
“Classroom environment” encompasses classroom infrastructure such as desks, chairs, electronics, computers, bookshelves and organizational tools.
“Enrichment” or extracurricular activities, includes music, art, physical education, sports, camps, museum trips and software.
According to ACE, 78% of funds have been spent on academics, 13% on classroom environment and 8% on enrichment.
What state oversight exists for the voucher program?
Under the law that created the scholarship, the Utah State Board of Education was required to hire a program manager to administer and distribute the voucher funds.
That legislation kept USBE’s involvement “very minimal” once a program manager was approved, said USBE Director of Strategic Communications Ryan Bartlett — in this case, ACE, which received a $9 million contract from USBE last November after a bidding period.
“The operations of the program were turned over to that program manager,” Bartlett said in a statement.
There isn’t much that ACE is legally required to report to USBE, Bartlett noted, though they do need to provide details on financial accountability, such as the total amount of scholarship funds distributed.
Utah law does however require ACE to give more detailed information directly to the Legislature’s Education Interim Committee. Starting Sept. 1, 2025, ACE is required to submit an annual report to lawmakers on that committee. It must include:
The total amount of tuition and fees qualifying providers charged for the current year (and the previous two years when applicable.)
The total amount of goods paid for with scholarship funds in the previous year and a general characterization of the types of goods.
Administrative costs of the program.
The state auditor must also conduct “regular” audits of ACE, including an analysis of the “cost-effectiveness” of the program. That means looking at scholarship amounts compared to how much state and local funds are spent on each student in traditional public schools.
How can recipients spend voucher money?
Though students and families can broadly use voucher money on “educational expenses,” there are some limitations.
For example, theme parks such as Disney World would not qualify as allowable extracurricular expenses. Yet a basketball hoop or a season ski pass for a student would be allowable under the law, ACE officials said.
Still, that money can only be directly spent through “qualified providers” that ACE vets and selects. So far, ACE has approved more than 700 providers, ranging from monthly subscriptions for new educational materials to online film programs to virtual schools.
If a family prefers to go to a provider that ACE has not vetted, they can, but they would have to put up their own funds and request reimbursement.
Families have until the end of the school year to exhaust their scholarship dollars. Any unused funds will be returned to ACE.
