Utah’s expansive school voucher program was unceremoniously pushed into existence by the Utah State Legislature in 2023. Since then, $82.5 million in Utah taxpayer money has been diverted into the program, with no evidence that 1) Utahns want to pay for students to attend private school; or 2) this poorly-constructed program will produce any positive educational outcomes for Utah children.
Education advocates oppose vouchers because they divert taxpayer funds from public schools and show poor education outcomes. For the first time, during the 2024-25 school year, Utah parents are able to access public taxpayer funding to enroll their child in private religious schools, or to cover home-schooling expenses. Voucher families currently receive $8,000 per student.*
Most Utahns may still not be aware of what the voucher program is, and the basics of how it works. This new blog series on vouchers and school privatization will provide basic information about:
- how the school voucher program is meant to work;
- how Utah voters were steamrolled into paying for school vouchers despite their clear resistance to the program;
- the painful history of school vouchers in the United States; and
- perhaps most importantly, the vast body of research showing that school voucher programs do not produce positive education outcomes for children.
Click here to read the first post in the series, "Vouchers 101: Utah's New School Privatization Program."
* It’s important to note that many well-regarded private schools, such as The Waterford School in Sandy or Intermountain Christian School in Salt Lake, charge annual tuition between $13,000 and $30,000. In addition, there are fewer than 200 private schools in the entire state. Four out of every five private schools in Utah are located on the Wasatch Front, in just four counties (Weber, Davis, Salt Lake and Utah).
