I hope this finds Robyn Bagley well, and if there’s any justice in the universe, utterly humiliated by the court’s ruling against Utah’s unconstitutional voucher scheme.
Let’s stop pretending the “Utah Fits All” program was ever about helping students. It was about funneling public money into private institutions, many of which discriminate freely against the very kids who need the most support. These schools aren’t required to follow the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. They don’t have to offer IEPs. They don’t have to accept neurodivergent students, or trans kids, or students living in poverty.
In fact, many actively exclude them.
This isn’t an accident. It’s a strategy.
Vouchers were born out of white backlash to Brown v. Board of Education. After courts ordered public schools to integrate, segregation academies popped up across the South, and vouchers were the escape hatch. That’s the legacy “school choice” was built on. History knows it. So do we. So does Robyn Bagley.
What we’re seeing now is just a modern version of that same strategy: isolate privilege, starve public education, and sell off the scraps under the guise of “freedom.”
But this isn’t freedom. This is apartheid with a lesson plan.
Public education is meant to serve every child, not just the ones someone like Robyn deems worthy. Her vision excludes, isolates, and abandons the vulnerable. And for what? Profit? Politics? A talking point?
History is watching, and history is on our side.
Correction: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of the letter was appended with an incorrect writer’s name.
