The Utah Fits All school voucher program was launched two years ago with $42.5 million. Last year, it was nearly doubled to $82 million.
Now Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore, R-Cottonwood Heights, wants to add another $80 million, pushing the total funding for the program to $162 million, enough to give vouchers to 20,000 Utah students.
“We’ve had one year of implementation so far, and, while there are concerns about some of the program management, by and large it’s been very successful,” Cullimore said in an interview. “We funded 10,000 kids [last year], and there’s 27,000 kids that applied last year, so I think we’re taking a measured approach. … We didn’t just open it up to everybody and then cross our fingers and hope that it doesn’t blow up public education.”
But in a year when lawmakers are not expecting huge amounts of new revenue to spend, Cullimore acknowledges that $80 million is a big ask.
“$80 million is the number we threw out there because it wouldn’t quite hit the demand right now, but the reality is we’re going to have to [come down],” he said. “It’s not going to be $80 million. It will be less.”
The budget subcommittee that prioritizes education requests has not heard Cullimore’s pitch yet, but has about $1 billion in requests for funding this year.
Whatever the figure is, Utah Education Association President Renée Pinkney opposes more taxpayer money going into the voucher program.
“We’re absolutely opposed to any voucher expansion because it is siphoning public tax dollars for a voucher system that has no accountability,” she said.
UEA is suing the Legislature over the Utah Fits All program, arguing diverting public tax money to private schools and homeschooled students undermines public education, which is a right guaranteed in the Utah Constitution.
Last month, a report to the state school board revealed that 177 students who received the $8,000 vouchers were still enrolled in public schools.
And HB192, sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost, D-Salt Lake City, seeks to prevent voucher recipients from spending the funds on ski passes, lift tickets and participation in sporting activities.
Cullimore said that there will be a bill coming later this session to tighten up some of the scholarship’s programmatic issues.
Arizona adopted a voucher program a few years ahead of Utah and expanded it rapidly, but now the state’s governor is trying to roll it back.
A 2018 Arizona ballot initiative dramatically expanded a scholarship program that had been limited to disabled students. By 2022, it was transformed into a universal voucher program, letting any parent, regardless of income, get a $7,000 voucher.
There are now 83,000 students in the program, costing taxpayers about $1 billion. This year, Gov Katie Hobbs has proposed limiting the scholarships to households with income under $200,000.
Cullimore said Utah is growing the program differently than Arizona did.
“I think the approach we’re taking is going to be frustrating maybe to some parents who were hoping to get the scholarship,” he said, “but the measured approach is a little bit better, where it’s, ‘Ok, let’s see how it goes. Let’s continue to grow, but do it within budget constraints.”
