Utah
became the third state to enact a universal
school choice
program Saturday after Gov. Spencer Cox (R) signed legislation into law creating a state-funded scholarship program that can be used for private school tuition.
The governor signed HB 215, the Funding for Teacher Salaries and Optional Education Act Saturday, creating the Utah Fits All Scholarship, which will provide students with $8,000 in state funds that can be used toward private school tuition and other education-related expenses. The program is capped at $42 million and 5,000 participants for its first year.
‘AN AMAZING DAY’: IOWA GOV. KIM REYNOLDS SIGNS LANDMARK SCHOOL CHOICE BILL
The legislation also increased annual teacher salaries in the state by $6,000. Despite this, the legislation faced universal opposition from numerous public education groups, including the state board of education and the Utah Education Association.
“We commend the Legislature for supporting our teacher pay proposal which will help address the state’s teacher shortage and give Utah teachers the much-needed pay raise they deserve,” the governor said in statement announcing the bill’s signing. “We also appreciate that HB 215 gives Utah parents additional options to meet the needs of their families. School choice works best when we adequately fund public education and we remove unnecessary regulations that burden our public schools and make it difficult for them to succeed. We are especially appreciative of our teachers and education leaders who helped push for more accountability measures which were not included in the original bill.”
The new law makes Utah the third state in the nation to enact a universal school choice program and the second to do so in 2023 following the passage of similar legislation in Iowa. Arizona enacted the nation’s first universal school choice program last year.
Corey DeAngelis, a senior fellow at the American Federation for Children and a prominent school choice advocate, told the Washington Examiner that he expects more states to enact school choice programs in 2023.
“A universal school choice revolution has ignited,” he said. “Utah is the second state this year to go all-in on empowering families with education freedom and it’s only January. Red states are now engaging in friendly competition to fund students, not systems. Iowa already passed universal school choice this year. Keep your eyes on states such as Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Florida, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and Wyoming.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Despite the rigid opposition to school choice from teachers unions, DeAngelis thanked American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten “for inadvertently doing more to advance school choice than anyone could have ever imagined.”
“Parents have woken up and are now freeing their children from a one-size-fits-all system that will, by definition, never meet their individual needs,” he added. “The power-hungry unions are now flailing because they’re losing control of other people’s kids.”
