Children learn differently, so Tooele mom Maria Ruiz pays attention to individual needs. Currently, she sends her son and daughter to separate private schools in Draper. The arrangement works well, but money for tuition is tight.

Her husband recently suffered a stroke and cannot work, and her income as a restaurant manager is modest. Over the years she has cleaned houses, sold baked goods and taken a second restaurant job to close the gap. But the family still struggles to pay bills.

Relief came in May, when both her children received Utah Fits All scholarships. State lawmakers approved the education savings account (ESA) program in January 2023, and the inaugural payouts will start during the 2024-25 school year.

Recipients will receive up to $8,000 annually to offset K-12 costs like tuition, books, tutoring, transportation and extracurriculars. The idea is to level the playing field, ending an educational monopoly that traps thousands of Utah families in a one-size-fits-all system.

“When I first heard about the program, I was so excited,” Ruiz says.

Many Utah families felt the same way. The state received 27,270 requests for 10,000 slots, forcing program managers to turn away nearly two-thirds of applicants.

The high demand should send a message to Utah public schools. Parents know their children best, and many families want additional educational options. Some parents like Ruiz are even willing to work extra hours to give their children an escape.

She tried to fit her family into the mold when her son reached fourth grade. Hoping to save money on tuition, she switched him from private school to the public elementary school in her neighborhood. She did what she could to support him as an active parent, but he struggled.

Class sizes were too big for one-on-one attention, teachers did not seem to care about getting to know her family, and her son experienced bullying. Soon, she saw his social skills suffer, so she ended the public school experiment after one year and returned to private education.

The Utah Fits All scholarships will help her children stay where they are thriving. If teachers unions put children first, they would be happy for Ruiz and leave her family alone. Instead, a member of the Utah State Board of Education and the Utah Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, filed a lawsuit on May 29 to end the ESA program.

These industry insiders like having control over a $7.7 billion system. They want a captive audience. All Ruiz wants is choice.

“It’s heartbreaking that the teachers union is trying to take the program away from us,” Ruiz says.

Rather than watch from the sidelines, she and another parent filed a motion on June 4 to intervene as defendants in the lawsuit and fight for the Utah Fits All Scholarship Program. Our public interest law firm, the Institute for Justice, represents them through Partnership for Educational Choice, a joint project with EdChoice.

The case concerns ESAs, an increasingly popular tool in the school choice movement. Besides Utah, 12 states already operate ESAs. Some of these states limit access to students with special needs or students from lower-income households. Other states, including Arizona, Florida and Utah, allow universal access.

Teachers unions dislike the flexibility for parents that ESAs create. They worry that public funds might go to support private schools, which they consider illegal. What they misunderstand or ignore is that parents, not the government, make decisions with ESAs. The funds in an ESA are spent by parents on the educational option they choose.

The Institute for Justice has successfully defended ESAs in state after state, most recently in North Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia. These programs are constitutional and regularly upheld by state supreme courts. They are also empowering for families.

“All Utah students deserve the opportunity for a quality education,” says Thomas Fisher, EdChoice vice president and litigation director. “Utah was right to prioritize student needs over a state monopoly.”

Ruiz was desperate for help, and state lawmakers stepped up. Now the courts must do the same.

Arif Panju is a managing attorney and Daryl James is a writer at the Institute for Justice in Arlington, Virginia.

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