Utah Vouchers

So, the Utah House of Representatives passed voucher legislation that's expected to sail through the state Senate and get gubernatorial approval, too. Utah already has a special education voucher program modeled after Florida's McKay Scholarship program. You can read Andy's and my critique of McKay to see why I don't think that's such a hot idea.

Edspresso's predictably pumped. Me, less so. Utah has the not-to-great distinction of being the lowest spending state in the country on public education, at $5,008 per pupil for the previous school year. Despite that, it's students perform at or just a teensy bit above NAEP averages, except in writing. The voucher funding is even less generous that Utah's regular public education funding: Families would get $500 to $3,000 on a sliding scale based on income. That's not a lot of money and will probably restrict program participation to a.) Families that can afford to pay to supplement the voucher, b.) Schools that have other sources of income and can afford to charge tuition below cost of education (see Matt's concerns about this basically becoming a subsidy for LDS schools), c.) Virtual Schools. I think a potential boom in virtual schools is the biggest possibility here, given the small funding amounts and rural nature of much of Utah. And given the issues that have arisen with unaccountable virtual schools in places like Ohio, I'd say that's cause for concern. But aside from that, and wasting money subsidizing middle class parents to send their kids to private schools, I doubt this is going to have the impact to justify voucher supporters' crowing now.

Unlike the other states with any kind of voucher scene, Utah's got a moderate charter school law (rated weak by the Center for Education), and only 39 charters statewide. I tend to think charters are a better way to expand meaningful choice for kids than voucher are, particularly voucher programs designed like this one is.