Nearly 16,000 families — covering more than 27,000 students — applied for a scholarship in the first year of the Utah Fits All (UFA) program. Only 10,000 students received one. This year — the second year of the program — more than 14,600 students received scholarships after the legislature increased overall funding and reduced some scholarship amounts. But thousands were again turned away due to lack of funding.
Clearly Utah families want more educational options than the system currently provides. That reality matters as the Utah Supreme Court considers whether to eliminate UFA, and as lawmakers weigh what comes next.
UFA, passed in 2023, enables parents to use a portion of state education funding for a wide range of educational options: private schools, microschools, tutoring, special-needs services and homeschool resources.
Since then, a diverse ecosystem of learning options has blossomed across the state. The same thing is happening in other states with similar programs. Lower-income families are prioritized in the application process, so UFA is helping students who need it most. School heads are also reporting a diversifying student body as children from a wider range of backgrounds find their way to schools that fit them.
Families aren’t exiting public schools out of spite — they just need something different. Perhaps they have a child with a learning disability whose assigned school wasn’t equipped to help, one who was bullied and needed a fresh start or a student who succeeds in a smaller setting that a conventional classroom can’t provide. UFA gave them a lifeline. For many, it’s the only reason their child is thriving today.
That program is now under threat.
The teachers’ union sued to kill UFA shortly after the first application window closed. Last year, a district judge sided with the union, ruling that Utah’s constitutional mandate to establish public schools means the legislature cannot create other educational programs. In other words, the ruling held that the mandate is a ceiling and not a floor. The Utah Supreme Court is now reviewing that decision.
Consider what the “ceiling” interpretation would actually mean. If the constitution truly prohibits the legislature from going beyond that minimum and prevents public funds from supporting private educational choices, Utah would need to halt programs that have operated for decades without controversy. For example, Utah’s public preschool programs — which are not universal, free or guaranteed — go well beyond the constitutional mandate to provide K-12 schooling.
Similarly, Opportunity Scholarships, which award college scholarships to high school students who complete advanced coursework, could be disallowed if the ceiling interpretation prevails. These programs are not facing legal challenges because the education clause has long been understood to set a floor for educating children, not a ceiling.
Specifically in the K-12 space, it’s worth noting that Utah’s long-standing programs supporting students with special needs at private schools have also not been subject to lawsuits despite going beyond what the constitution mandates. It’s further evidence that the constitution’s education provision has not been treated as a ceiling.
The Idaho Supreme Court recently confronted a similar question and came to the opposite conclusion of the Utah district judge. Ruling against a challenge to Idaho’s education tax credit program, the Idaho court held that the public school mandate doesn’t bar the legislature from going further. “When a constitutional provision mandates the legislature do something,” the court wrote, “it is not reasonable to read that mandate as restricting the legislature’s broader power to do something more.”
The union’s second argument — that the program diverts funding from public schools to private schools — fares no better. Scholarships go to individual children, not private schools, and can be used for far more than tuition, including tutoring, therapy, curriculum and other learning expenses. Crucially, a scholarship only exists because a family chose not to use a public school, so public schools are not losing funding for students they are actually educating.
The numbers also undermine the “defunding” argument since public schools retain significant funding even when students choose other options. Utah public schools spent more than $10.6 billion last year — over $16,000 per student. The maximum UFA scholarship is $8,000.
School districts retain all local funding and some state funding even when students go elsewhere. Total UFA funding amounts to roughly 1% of public school spending. Allowing parents more choices about how to educate their children does not threaten the public school system.
For more than a century, establishing and maintaining public schools has been the bare minimum Utah’s constitution required. UFA finally goes further. It gives children who need something other than their assigned public school access to different learning environments.
Whatever the court decides, the legislature should be clear-eyed about what’s at stake: a program with more demand than supply that is already changing lives and costs a fraction of what public schools spend.