Custom-tailored education: Utah among leaders in school choice

Education is totally customizable in Utah, thanks to school choice.

Jon England’s daughter is a perfect example. The 16-year-old homeschooler takes courses from four different schools and providers in addition to what her parents teach her at home.

“I’ve been calling it ‘unbundled education,’” says England, who works for the pro-freedom Libertas Institute. Students are “picking and choosing where they’re getting specific classes, and that has worked out so well for her because it allows her to really concentrate on writing, which she loves.”

His daughter takes a religion class three days a week at a microschool one of her sisters attends, debate and English classes once a week at an outside location, a leadership class twice a week online and an asynchronous writing class online she takes at her own pace.  

The arrangement fits his daughter, who uses her spare time to write. She’s already working on her first book. 

It also fits the family, as all of her schooling is paid-for through Utah Fits All, the state’s school choice program. 

The Beehive State leads the way in flexibility in its school choice model, according to a review of state school choice programs by the Beacon Center of Tennessee, which is advocating to expand that state’s limited choice programs. 

In Utah, students don’t have to attend just one school but can choose the courses and offerings that are right for them. They can even take offerings from public schools. Ten districts and two charter schools have started offering courses “a la carte,” according to the state’s provider directory. 

Robyn Bagley, executive director of Utah Education Fits All, an advocacy group, expects more public schools to follow suit. 

“We’re in Year 1 of the program, and already a pretty decent amount have decided to go for it,” Bagley told The Lion. “None of them are being [very] innovative yet, but we anticipate they’ll get a lot more creative.” 

Of the 33 states with some form of school choice, 17 – including Utah – rank as having “universal usage,” according to Ed Tarnowski, policy and advocacy director at EdChoice. This means parents can use school choice funds on a wide range of qualifying expenses such as tutoring, transportation and technology, not just tuition. 

Utah pays education vendors directly if they are preapproved, but parents can simply pay and submit receipts for reimbursement if they’re not, England says. It even works for out-of-state providers, such as his daughter’s leadership course, which is from Texas. 

“There are some limitations on what we can and can’t buy,” he says. “Most of those are on the goods side as opposed to services. We have yet to run into something they wouldn’t pay for (if it’s) something everyone would think of as a typical education offering or service.” 

The flexibility is real, with obvious restrictions. 

“You can’t go buy household goods with the program, or appliances for your home,” he adds. “But if I wanted my child to go and take an unusual PE type class, something like a ninja course where they have an instructor, they could do that if they wanted to. I’ve not heard of anybody being denied for something similar to that.” 

EdChoice tracks school choice nationwide, and is beginning to rank programs based on universal access, universal funding and universal usage. 

“To truly see systemic change in education, we want to empower families as much as possible and make sure all parents can access [school choice] and use it and customize their education based on their needs,” Tarnowski told The Lion. 

England says his state enacted education reforms because lawmakers “really trust parents.

“Utah legislators, they think parents know what’s best for their children. They wanted to provide as many options as possible for parents to pick and choose the best education for their children.”