Shutterstock
CV NEWS FEED // A district judge ruled April 18 that Utah’s school choice program is unconstitutional, stating that parents cannot use public funds to send their children to private institutions.
Deseret News reported that the ruling leaves thousands of children whose families had been using the $8,000 annual school choice grant from the Utah Fits All Scholarship Program “in limbo.” The program began in the 2024-25 school year, according to the Utah State Board of Education, providing K-12 students with a grant to use for educational costs, which can include private school tuition, tutoring, materials, and more.
The Utah Education Association (UEA) and four individual plaintiffs sued the state in 2023, arguing that income tax revenue cannot be redistributed in school choice grants that could be used to fund private schools. Third District Judge Laura Scott ruled in favor of the UEA, finding that Utah’s constitution requires income tax to be used for funding public schools.
“[B]ecause the Program is a legislatively created, publicly funded education program aimed at elementary and secondary education, it must satisfy the constitutional requirements applicable to the ‘public education system’ set forth in the Utah Constitution,” she wrote in her decision, according to Deseret News. “The legislature does not have plenary authority to circumvent these constitutional requirements by simply declining to ‘designate’ the Program as part of the public education system.”
Nonetheless, the program’s supporters, including Republican Attorney General Derek Brown and Republican Gov. Spencer Cox, maintain that the program does not violate the constitution. Brown stated that his office is “actively reviewing the ruling and assessing the state’s next steps,” and Cox said that the state is “preparing to appeal.”
“While we are disappointed in the court’s decision on the Utah Fits All program, our commitment to Utah families and their right to make choices about their children’s education remains unchanged,” he posted on X.
The UEA celebrated the ruling in a post on X, stating that “public money belongs in public schools” and that the decision “reinforces the belief that public education is a cornerstone of opportunity for everyone, regardless of their background or circumstances.”
Republican State Rep. Candice Pierucci, one of the program’s sponsors, said that the ruling detracts from parents’ abilities to have authority over their children’s education.
“The Utah State Constitution states that ‘parents have the primary responsibility for the Education of their children.’ This past year, thousands of families have had access to the Utah Fits All Scholarship Program to customize their child’s learning experience,” she stated on X. “The decision made by Judge Scott is judicial activism; it is not the job of judiciary to set policy on the bench and infuse personal opinion and ideology into their decisions.”
>> Catholic Students in Utah Thank Legislators for School Choice Scholarships <<
