Utah school choice applications open; high demand crashes website first day

Applications for the Utah education savings accounts program opened Feb. 28, and traffic surge to the online application “broke” the website temporarily.

“Demand is apparently so high that the surge in traffic broke the website,” reported Connor Boyack, president of Libertas Institute and author of the Tuttle Twins book series.

The program, called Utah Education Fits All, was approved by the Legislature and signed into law by the governor in January 2023 with funding for 5,000 students at around $40 million, but during the 2024 Utah Legislative Session, appropriations were increased to $80 million, enough to serve up to 10,000 students.

The program allows students to receive up to $8,000 for educational expenses, such as private school tuition and fees, tutoring services, testing fees, materials and curriculum costs and contracted services. 

Unlike other states that rolled out their school choice programs within months of their ESA bills passing, such as Iowa and Arkansas, Utah waited over a year to begin taking applications. 

Friday, Utah Education Fits All reported around 20,000 parents representing 41,000 students completed the pre-apply form before the official application opened. This pre-apply form notified parents of the application opening, and around 10,000 families have applied since it opened. On the first day alone, 5,223 applications representing 8,133 students had been submitted. 

Applications close April 15. 

All families are eligible to apply, but applications will be approved according to the following priorities, according to the Utah State Board of Education: (1) Students whose family income is at or below 200% of the federal poverty level; (2) Students with a sibling who has been using an ESA; and (3) Students whose family has an income between 200% to 500% of the federal poverty level. 

In addition to private school students, home-based and microschool students are eligible for the program. Part-time public charter school and school district students are eligible for a partial scholarship. 

The organization, EdChoice, ranks the Utah Fits All Scholarship Program as the “second-most expansive Education Saving Account (ESA) in the United States,” just after Arizona’s, West Virginia’s, and Florida’s ESA programs, which all tie for the “most expansive education savings account (ESA) program in the United States.” 

The state also recently passed legislation easing regulations on microschools.