Does parent choice hurt public education? Utah voters weigh in on gubernatorial race

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has touted public education reforms as one of his key accomplishments as he campaigns for a second term. Cox's opponent, state Rep. Brian King, has framed these same reforms as one of the incumbent's greatest liabilities.

Since entering office in 2021, Cox, a Republican, has approved record budgets for education, increased the weighted pupil unit by at least 5% every year and greenlighted millions of dollars in COVID-19-related teacher bonuses.

During the past two legislative sessions, Cox backed the state GOP supermajority in promoting parental rights and protecting against inappropriate or discriminatory conduct in schools. These measures — which include prohibiting explicit materials in school libraries, pairing $8,000 student vouchers with teacher raises, clarifying restrictions on bathroom use and banning diversity, equity and inclusion practices — sit at the center of Cox's reelection bid.

But for some previous supporters of Cox, the new laws are a deal breaker. From the perspective of some teachers, these laws, which King, a Democrat, largely opposed, have felt like an impractical oversight that prioritizes "culture war" concerns over the needs of educators and students.

For others, including many parents and policymakers, Cox has struck the right balance between shoring up public schools while opening up educational opportunities.

Utah should fit all. But how?

While still undecided, Utah County voter Madelynne Evans said she leans toward giving Cox another four years because of his push to strengthen the public education system while also supporting parents who want to create a more personalized experience for their children outside of that system.

"I am a firm believer that if we have more to work with, there's more opportunity," Evans said.

Evans has raised her 7-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter in between moves to Alaska, New Mexico and Ohio, giving her a view of public education across the country. After returning to Utah just over a month ago, Evans, who is studying to become an elementary school instructor, started as a volunteer for her local Parent Teacher Association in the Alpine School District.

Evans was surprised to find more community involvement in schools than she had found anywhere else and increased willingness from teachers to apply special resources to help struggling students like her son. Her support for the incumbent governor comes from the $6,000 pay raise he negotiated to bring starting teacher salaries to $60,000 a year, Evans said.

Evans was excited to learn that as part of the negotiations, the governor signed into law the Utah Fits All Scholarship, which enables qualifying parents to use $8,000 in state funds for private school, home schooling or other private educational options. This program is exactly what she has been looking for as she has tried to find more affordable private education options for her daughter, she said.

Jon England, the education policy analyst at Libertas Institute, is also all in on the Utah Fits All Scholarship. But he is no stranger to public schools. Before joining the libertarian think tank, England taught fifth and sixth grade and was a school principal in the Weber School District. But what he observed as principal was that much of his time was spent helping students "who didn't fit that system."

"What the Utah Fits All program does is it allows a parent of that child to find something that does fit," said England, who homeschools his five children.

Allowing families like his own to receive state funding for private educational experiences isn't another big government program; it's ensuring that parents who don't want their kids in public education aren't forced to pay for a school system that doesn't benefit them, according to England.

"If we're going to pay for our children to be educated, which is a noble goal, the funding needs to follow the student, and parents should be able to direct how those funds are spent," England said.

The Libertas Institute supported the passage of the Utah Fits All scholarship but does not make any political endorsements.

Public school funding: Fixed or flexible?

While Cox has shone a spotlight on his bid to increase teacher pay in exchange for increasing parental choice, one of King's central campaign promises is to repeal Utah Fits All, saying it negatively impacts public funding in rural communities.

Viewing vouchers as a threat to guaranteed public school funding is also what led the largest teachers' union in the state to flip its support from Cox to King. In 2020, the Utah Education Association endorsed Cox based, in part, on his stance on school vouchers. Four years later, the UEA came out in support of Cox's Democratic opponent for the same reason.

"The competition that public education has now been thrown into because they are using funding from the income tax fund to fund the voucher program — we know that you cannot have two different education systems, one private ... versus public school," said UEA President Renée Pinkney. "All you have to do is look at Arizona and see what that does to a budget."

Since Arizona's "Empowerment Scholarship Account" voucher program became universal in 2022, it has ballooned in size, serving over 80,000 students — or around 7% of school-aged children in Arizona. The cost of the program, now approaching $865 million a year, has led to the incremental decrease in funding of public education in the state, according to critics. Others have challenged that narrative.

More than 15,900 applications on behalf of 27,270 students were submitted for Utah's inaugural K-12 school choice scholarship program. This fall, 10,000 scholarships of $8,000 were awarded, for a total of $80 million, to be used according to specific guidelines enforced by ACE Scholarships.

The Utah PTA has also approved resolutions opposing vouchers and other attempts to give public education funding directly to families for other purposes. PTA Education Commissioner Amber Bonner said school vouchers allow scholarship recipients to use public funding to pay for activities, whether it's kayaking, crafts or cello lessons, that aren't available in public school settings.

Bonner said the all-volunteer organization also opposes the Legislature's attempt to amend the state Constitution so that income tax revenue can be used for purposes other than education to increase budget flexibility. Cox supported the amendment, and King opposed it.

While the amendment — currently on ballots as Amendment A — has been voided by courts because it was not adequately publicized, Bonner said efforts to eliminate the income tax earmark represent a desire by lawmakers to remove guarantees surrounding public education funding.

"It's difficult to give up a constitutional protection for protections that could be changed by a future legislature at any time," Bonner said. "That earmark feels like a commitment from the citizens of Utah. And the concern is that removing it might cause other issues that we then are going to be unable to anticipate and would be problematic."

What Utah voters want on education

King has campaigned heavily in opposition to Cox's support of two bills in the 2024 legislative session: HB261, which prohibits school programs that discriminate based on characteristics like race, gender and sexual orientation, and HB257, which increases penalties for individuals who use public bathrooms that don't match their biological sex.

For Anna Williams, an English and debate teacher at Park City High School, these laws fit into a national trend of conservative policies but don't fit the needs of individual schools and classrooms. Williams, who strongly supports King for governor, sees restrictions on identity-based outreach, bathroom use and classroom material as preventing teachers from creating the best experience possible for every student.

"I feel as though some of that oversight is far-reaching and hurts some of the most marginalized students within our community," Williams said.

Williams also finds fault with a bill Cox signed this year that would remove books from public schools statewide if three school districts, or two school districts and five charter schools, determine the materials are pornographic or indecent. Books already pass through a careful process before they land on school shelves, and banning them removes representation of important perspectives, Williams said.

Williams voted for Cox in 2020 but can't get past his support for regulations on teachers and his tying of school vouchers to teacher raises. More than anything, Williams wants a governor who will support teachers "without these ridiculous political games and culture wars."

"We're professionals. And it would be nice if parents trusted professionals to do the work we were hired and trained to do," Williams said. "I don't think that any of us have ulterior motives, and there's no hidden agenda."

But freedom to exit the public school system does not mean weakening it, according to Megan Allen, who started homeschooling her youngest daughter during COVID-19 because she was falling behind in math and reading. Since starting with a private homeschool group, Allen's daughter, who is in seventh grade, is now ahead of grade-level average in reading.

Allen has nothing against public school — her oldest six children all went to public schools — but she believes that in addition to supporting teachers, the governor should ensure schools remain a safe place for children and that parents can pursue other educational opportunities if that is what seems best for them.

"There needs to be an alternative because public schools, across the board, no matter what state you're in, it is one-size-fits-all education. There's hardly any wiggle room, and some kids don't learn that way," Allen said.

Allen didn't vote for Cox in June's GOP primary election but she is open to voting for any candidate in the general election who recognizes the need to increase funding for teachers — who Allen says are stretched too thin — and the need to empower parents to meet the unique needs of their children.

"Even though I'm home school, there are some parents that public school is great for them. It works for them, it's what they need," Allen said. "And just as much as I want my kid to succeed, I want their kids to succeed too."

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