Utah’s House passed a voucher bill, even though the state voted against them by 62-38% in 2007. Republicans in Utah are determined to bypass a referendum, as they are in other states, because voters have never passed one. Voters don’t want to defund their public schools.
You can bet that 70-80% of the students who get vouchers are already enrolled in private religious schools. That’s the proportion reported in every state that has vouchers. The small number who ask for vouchers will lose ground academically and eventually return to their local public school. The research is unequivocal: vouchers do NOT improve academic achievement. They are a gift to parents whose kids are already in private schools.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports:
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Utah House pushes through controversial voucher bill after suspending rules
HB215 would allow taxpayer funds to be spent on private schooling and home schooling. The largest teachers union in the state is opposed.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Riverton, sponsor of HB215, is pictured on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023. Her bill was approved by the House on Friday, Jan. 20, 2023, after less than 24 hours of consideration.
A controversial bill to create a taxpayer-funded, $42 million school voucher program in Utah — the most expansive in state history — was pushed through the House on Friday under suspended rules that allowed lawmakers to approve it without the required wait time.
The Republican-led proposal was approved on a 54-20 vote that came during the final minutes of floor time of the first week of what’s already shaped up to be a fast and wild legislative session.
“This is the beginning of us reinventing public education in Utah,” declared Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Herriman, the sponsor of HB215.
The bill sets up what Pierucci has called the “Utah Fits All Scholarship” that would allow students to use public money to attend private schools or be home-schooled. It’s touted as a way to give parents and kids more choice in education.
Pierucci’s proposal also includes an ongoing $6,000 salary and benefits raise for teachers across the state — made contingent on approving the vouchers.
The measure is opposed by the largest teachers union in Utah, which has said educators feel devalued by having their paycheck tied to a voucher program many don’t support and many worry will further hobble Utah’s public schools. Per pupil funding in the state is already among the lowest in the nation, passing only Idaho.
An attempt by Democratic Rep. Angela Romero of Salt Lake City to split the bill into two was voted down Friday by the conservative-majority body. Romero argued that teacher raises shouldn’t be a bargaining chip to pass other policies.
“I think these are two different issues, and they need to be discussed in two different bills,” she said.
Democrats and a few Republicans stood with her, including Rep. Carl Albrecht, R-Richfield. He called it “disingenuous” to connect the issues as a way to force support.
But Rep. Douglas Welton, R-Payson, who is a public school teacher, voted in favor of the bill with the raises — even after calling it “one of the biggest bribes.” He said he’d like to see more work done before any final passage of the bill, which will go next to the Senate.
The vote to pass the bill Friday was supported only by Republican lawmakers. All 13 Democrats in the House, along with seven Republicans, voted to oppose. Still, the vote was enough to represent two-thirds of the body. If the bill passes with the same margin in the Senate, it’s secure from both a veto or referendum.
Pierucci has insisted on the two issues of teacher pay and vouchers remaining together as a funding package. She believes it shows that even though the state wants students to be able to explore other education options, it also still supports public school educators; she talked about her own experience growing up attending public schools in Utah.
After the bill passed in committee late Thursday, she made a few changes before it was heard on the House floor Friday morning.
Her amended bill capped the amount allocated each year for the program at $42 million, instead of allowing it to grow with the annual adjustments to the weighted pupil unit amount, or WPU — which has caused problems in other states with similar programs. The WPU here, which is currently set at about $4,000, is what each public school is given by the state for each child enrolled there (not counting additional add-ons for students with disabilities).
But Pierucci didn’t change the amount her scholarship would allocate per student, which has been a source of heartburn. The Utah Fits All Scholarship is an $8,000 award — which is double the WPU set by the state.
Pierucci said she arrived at the figure by combining the roughly $4,000 WPU with the average amount spent by each Utah school district on students, which is about another $4,000. That second portion is collected locally, through property taxes, and is subject to local control and decision making on how to spend it.
Some have argued that isn’t a fair setup and values the scholarship students more than those who elect for public schools. And for every student who leaves a public school to enroll elsewhere, they said, the school no longer gets their WPU and essentially loses funding and state support.
Rep. Sandra Hollins, D-Salt Lake City, said she doesn’t believe the bill supports low-income families, as Pierucci has argued.
Pierucci says students in households living below the poverty line will be prioritized for the scholarship.
But Hollins said many of those families wouldn’t be able to use it anyway because they don’t have the transportation to go to a private school and wouldn’t be able to pay the difference between the scholarship and private school tuition. The average tuition at a private school in Utah is roughly $11,000 a year.
“It doesn’t give every student equal access,” Hollins said, noting people in her district are choosing between paying for the bus to go to work, buying new shoes and keeping the lights on.
Others said they were worried about sending public dollars to private institutions that have no requirements by the state to hire licensed teachers or to teach a set curriculum. Most of the schools are religious. And there’s no obligation for private schools to help students with disabilities.
“Because it’s public money it should go to public schools,” which are held publicly accountable, said Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Holladay, a former public school teacher.
The biggest concern raised by the largely Democratic opposition, though, was the rush to vote on the bill. The rules in the House typically require a bill to be on the calendar for 24 hours before a vote, giving lawmakers a chance to read through it before debate. It was only 19 hours after the bill passed in committee that the full House voted on it Friday, after suspending the rules.
The most recent draft with Pierucci’s amendments “was numbered at 10:00 this morning, introduced and debated under suspension of the rules at 11:15, and passed at about 12:30. For no good reason,” wrote Rep. Brian King, D-Salt Lake City, on Twitter after the vote.
He added: “Voting by an informed body and public could just as easily have been done Monday morning. #abuseofpower”
Pierucci and others, though, said it was largely the same bill with a few small changes that she’d been working on this week — and had tried to pass last year but failed.
The other changes she made include allowing a student to attend public school part time and then get a partial scholarship to get private tutoring or do home schooling for the remainder.
Rep. Karen Peterson, R-Clinton, said she liked that addition, suggesting it opened up the scholarship to more students living in rural areas that might not have access to a nearby private school (most of those are concentrated on the Wasatch Front).
The other change was what Pierucci is calling an added “accountability measure.” In the original bill, the test scores of students leaving public schools for private schools was not allowed to be tracked. Opponents wanted that provision to be able to study the success of the program.
In the version passed Friday, students on the scholarship have the option to take an assessment at the end of the year or submit a portfolio of their work in school to the scholarship administrator as proof of their education. Peterson believes that will help see if the vouchers “move the needle.” Others said it wasn’t strong enough.
Peterson said the bill supports the Republican values of creating choices and a competitive market for schools. And she likes the “guardrails,” too, for the administrator that will oversee the program.
Rep. Ken Ivory, R-West Jordan, agreed, adding that in recent years he’s talked to parents with concerns about the books being taught in public schools — which he ran legislation on last year. And he didn’t like that schools required masking at times during the pandemic and feels parents should have a choice outside of that.
Pierucci said her impetus has been the COVID-19 pandemic, which she said proved to her that not all students thrive in public schools.
“The last couple of years,” she said, “have highlighted that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work for every child.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Who do the Utah Rethugs think they are???
Missouri Rethuglicans?
Again, yes all the facts about vouchers are correct and we can cite stats till we keel over. At least 45% of the American population is programmed to ignore, question, or vilify everything that comes from “the libs.” They have successfully stymied, gerrymandered, appealed to bigotry, and lied over decades with an increasing exponential intensity in order to create this constituency. It has been fundamentally distorted and perhaps, and with qanon, a permanently lost, mentally ill following that is more intense than those who understand why democracy must be saved.
What we see in state legislatures throughout the nation is a natural by product of this that further strengthens their causes, but with a permanency that will destroy democratic-republican governing. Instead of expressing the will of voters, these legislatures see themselves instead as a check to public wishes and needs. But there is something bigger at play, something that only a few Bannon-like folks get. With all the lists of Nazi hate that have been made here, one fundamental one exposed in Mein Kampf is missing. Their hate of federalism was as great as their hate for vulnerable minorities and political opponents. Does that sound like anything contemporary?
The full expression of the ALEC-ization of state legislatures is not to create state power, but to one day eliminate the need for states and have only one policy–an authoritarian-approved one–for the nation. Months before Hitler came to power, the legal autonomy of Prussia was eliminated. It was three-fifths of the German population and stretched from what is today westernmost Russia to almost the French border. Imagine if the entire California state government were dissolved to have only ceremonial duties? Now imagine that it covers three-fifths of the country. First they took over the police apparatus. And within a month taking formal power, all the other states were absorbed, even Bavaria (like today’s Texas) and Württemberg (like Oregon), which made one government rule quickly possible.
Read some of this intricate history. Bannon and the leaders of ALEC are and they are using it as motivation, taking lessons from cautionary tales to make their venality seem less violent while achieving their long-term goals. They are using it as a blueprint.
Each state would still have a state legislature and official “sovereignty,” but since every one has pretty much the same laws that cede all of the implementation authority to the national government, their meetings will only be ceremonial to rubber stamp policies dictated from the central authority. At least that’s the long-term goal.
Rights with no power means no power at all.
And to underscore the importance of meaningful rhetoric to create meaningful opposition, note the failure at the end of this press conference. What kind of man Desantis is is exactly the wrong question and feeds completely into the fascist narrative. It cedes the rhetorical ground to DeSantis. This is not about who is “a man.” It is about who is the constitutionally elected and representing official and what is the voters’ will. This entire episode is a case study in how to intentionally lose.
Underlying ALEC is a regressive xtian fundamental nationalism that the proponents seek to impose on everyone else in order to take America back to a time and place it never was nor ever will be, i.e., an xtian theocracy. All of ALEC, besides making it easier for the Kochsuckers to enrich themselves, has that xtian theocracy as a foundation.
How many members of Utah’s legislature were elected with help from ALEC members and other extreme-right, out-of-state billionaires’ campaign contributions (and other help from dark money flowing from the extreme right)?
Once they own an elected official, they own them for however long they hold an elected position, and a greedy fascist by any other name is still a greedy fascist that does not care a hoot what the majority of voters think or want.
Oh, it’s a lot. I don’t have exact numbers of how many Utah state legislators are members of ALEC, but a number like 40 percent wouldn’t surprise me.
Thank you, Diane, for letting everyone know. If it passes by 2/3 in the Senate, as it did in the House, then a new law says it cannot have a citizen referendum either.
These cowardly legislators are afraid to let the voters decide. They distrust democracy.
But the voters actually DO decide every time they elect and reelect their legislators.
Three fourths of the voters in Utah are registered Republicans who keep voting for the people who supposedly don’t represent their interests.
The real cowards are the voters who keep electing the same type of legislators that they have been electing forever. The voters are earthly afraid of voting for anyone who does not give the Republican party line.
I was wrong about percentage of registered Republicans.
But the distinction between registered Republicans and unaffiliated really a distinction without a difference.
https://www.kuer.org/politics-government/2022-09-21/unaffiliated-voters-are-utahs-2nd-largest-voting-block-but-theyre-not-all-true-independents
Far more Utahns are registered Republicans than registered Democrats, which is an indication of which party’s candidates a supposed “independent” will give for in an election.
Same as it ever was.
What the people of Utah think and want matters not to the folks controlling Utah.
But luckily, that only affects the people in Utah.
Of far greater concern to the rest of the country is what Utah’s Congressional reps and Senators do.
And despite what he wants everyone to believe, Romney certainly does not have the best interests of ordinary working people at heart.
Any more than his pal Joe Manchin , with whom he just teamed up on his TRUST act does.
The latter was modeled after the 2011 Simpson-Bowles Commission that recommended deep cuts to Social Security
Romney, like Manchin is a wolf and can not be “trusted” as far as an ant can throw a stick.
Romney is a fake goody two shoes who would not hesitate to cut social security even if it were his own grandmother’s only means of support.
Romney made all his money working for Gain Capital, whose business model was the hostile takeover of companies, followed by firing employees and loading the company up on debt (which the company, not Bain was responsible for ) and then exiting, after taking a large fee.
Romney is a great white shark.
Bain Capital
A great white shark coming for your grand mother’s social security .
Chomp chomp.
Not incidentally, it’s really hard to feel sorry for most of the Utah voters , whose reps vote against their interests.
Nearly 75% of voters in the state are registered Republicans who elect the very people who are voting against their interests.
So, to them I would say ” cry me a river, you poor dears.”
Full disclosure: I lived in Utah for a decade and a half and eventually left because I could no longer stomach the gross hypocrisy of most of the people who live there.
Your number of registered Republicans is way off. More than half of Utah voters are unaffiliated. I’m not saying the legislature is right. Far from it and they act as though they have this huge mandate when they don’t. But our districts are so badly Gerrymandered and the Republican base so extreme that it’s hard to get anyone normal in the legislature
You are right about the actual percentages of registered voters (I must have been looking at older numbers), but the distinction between registered Republicans and unaffiliated really a distinction without a difference.
https://www.kuer.org/politics-government/2022-09-21/unaffiliated-voters-are-utahs-2nd-largest-voting-block-but-theyre-not-all-true-independents
And I don’t buy the idea that it’s simply a matter of gerrymandering.
Far more Utahns are registered Republicans than registered Democrats, which is an indication of which party’s candidates a supposed “independent” will vote for in an election..
I other words, most of the ” independents” are fake.
Let’s just say that I find the idea that the majority of Utah voters are somehow NOT responsible for the makeup of the legislature highly implausible.
It might be true in a state where registered Republican and Democrat numbers were about equal and gerrymandering made the difference, but it’s simply not true in Utah.
This whole idea that the majority of voters are somehow the victims in this whole process is absurd.
Oh, I agree with you. Utah’s tend to be one-issue voters and vote with Republicans because abortion. It’s silly and stupid and a one-party state makes all kinds of problems, including the ludicrous Gerrymandering that goes on. A lot of Utah voters don’t get it
Florida House speaker Paul Renner has proposed a universal voucher without any restrictions under the guise of ‘parent empowerment.’ He claims it would “free” over 9,000 handicapped students that could be placed in separate and unequal settings and cost the state less for subpar services. This has been the goal anyway. Freedom in Florida education equals the right to discriminate against “undesirables” by pushing them into separate and unequal settings.
This proposal will likely be adopted by the state legislature led by right wing extremists. I doubt there will be widespread resistance in districts as most superintendents are either hand picked by DeSantis or afraid of his iron fist. The feckless union is making some noise that will probably be ignored. Sleeping parents should awaken and protest this clear assault on the quality of public education in the state.
Why not just hand out packets of crisp $100 bills the way we did innIraq?
The most disgusting part of this bill is that it ties teacher raises to it. So it doesn’t pass, and teachers get zilch. But jobs will be cut and class sizes increased if it DOES pass. Disingenuous garbage.
Garbage???
You’re being way too nice!