Utah
Here’s how the Utah Fits All Scholarship could ‘really change’ home-schooling
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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Legislature’s passage of HB215 in January established the Utah Fits All Scholarship program that will allow 5,000 Utah K-12 students to access scholarships up to $8,000 in state funds for education expenses and services like private and charter school tuition, fees and more.
While much of the public discussion surrounding the bill largely focused on private and charter schools, it will also allow home-schooling families to have more robust options for educating their children at home.
Starting in the 2024-25 school year, these families can use the scholarship funds for everything from classroom supplies like pencils and paper to extracurricular activities like music lessons, martial arts and gymnastics.
“Eight-thousand dollars could really change the way they educate their children,” said Jamie Buckland, founder of West Virginia Families United for Education.
A home-schooling parent herself, Buckland spoke Tuesday evening as part of a panel of other home-schooling and school choice advocates hosted by Utah Education Fits All to discuss how the program can be used for home-schooling.
Buckland, who lives in West Virginia, home-schools two of her children. One of them is a Hope Scholarship recipient (West Virginia’s version of the Utah Fits All Scholarship) and one isn’t.
“When looking at our curriculum options … our older daughter, she’s had to kind of pick and choose … because she’s still a traditional home-schooler and so she doesn’t have that extra funding,” Buckland said. “With her, we feel limited.”
She added that home-schoolers who receive a scholarship are exposed to new educational opportunities that might not have been accessible before, whether for logistical or financial reasons.
Home-schooling is also on the rise in Utah. In fact, interest in home-schooling in the state has increased by almost 90% since 2019 and Utah ranks third nationwide for the best state to home-school children, according to a July study by the Age of Learning.
Through scholarships like Hope and Utah Fits All, funds are deposited into an Education Savings Account, -which is a government-authorized account into which public funds are deposited for families who withdraw their children from public school.
Jenny Clark, a member of the Arizona Board of Education, said that school choice scholarships allow for unique customization options for a student’s education and give more options to families who feel public, private and charter schools don’t meet their needs.
She also said that Education Savings Account parents have created groups to share and swap curriculums.
“ESAs absolutely grow opportunities and the thing that I love is when homeschooling families go … ‘You know what, like, I’m really good at knitting and weaving and I wonder what it would look like to, you know, start an LLC and start offering classes to students who are really interested in fiber arts and to start offering those classes to these students,’” Clark said.
She added that in Arizona, she has seen “hundreds” of people start companies focused on a client base of Education Savings Account families.
A controversial bill
While the passing of HB215 was championed by parents’ rights and school choice advocates, some education officials denounced the bill, in large part due to fears that “private schools will receive public money that should go to public schools,” Utah State Board of Education member Carol Lear said in January.
Critics of the bill also questioned how it was “shamelessly connected” to raising teacher salaries. Along with providing up to $8,000 in state funds for private school, home-schooling or other private educational options, the bill also funded a $6,000 compensation increase for educators.
Rep. Doug Welton, R-Payson, who is an educator, said tying the pay raise for teachers to the school choice scholarship felt like “one of the largest bribes to pass funding,” but he ultimately voted for it.
The bill passed largely along party lines, with most Republicans in the House and Senate supporting it and most Democrats opposing it.
People can learn more about the Utah Fits All Scholarship here.