Utah’s universal school choice program spilling over with applicants despite doubling budget

Utah has approved just 10,000 scholarships despite receiving over 27,000 applications for its new universal school choice program.

Utah Fits All was approved by the Legislature in 2023, and grants up to $8,000 to K-12 students for educational expenses. It is Utah’s third school choice program, but the first to be available to students who don’t have special needs.  

Utah Fits All has proven to be hugely popular in its first year, with its 27,000-plus applications creating a surge of traffic that crashed the website on its first day.  

The problem is, there was only enough funding for10,000 scholarships for low-income students – even after the state had doubled the program’s initial budget from $40 million to $80 million.  

Fully funding the program at its current demand level would require more than $200 million.  

State Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-District 49, who sponsored the scholarship program in the House, encouraged those denied a scholarship to advocate for Utah Fits All to be expanded.  

“Please keep applying,” Pierucci said. “Please reach out to your legislator and let them know that you applied and you really would support additional funding for this.”  

“This scholarship is less than what we spend per pupil in the public education system, so why wouldn’t we support it?” asked Robyn Bagley, executive director of Utah Education Fits All, a school choice advocacy group. “What difference does it make as long as that child is thriving?”  

Despite spending less than almost any other state on K-12 education, Utah still spends nearly $11,000 per pupil. 

Nevertheless, some still criticize the wildly popular new program for supposedly harming public education.  

“Utah must prioritize public education students, not take money away from them,” Renée Pinkey, president of Utah’s state teachers’ union, said in a statement. “Tax dollars should go to schools that are accountable to the public. Private school vouchers lack the academic and fiscal accountability required by public schools.”  

But despite union resistance, such school choice programs are thriving – and overflowing – across the nation. Like Utah, North Carolina maxed out its budget, receiving 72,000 applications and approving fewer than 16,000 of them.  

Meanwhile, Ohio approved nearly 90,000 scholarships in its inaugural year of universal school choice.