Right now, students and families can broadly use the Utah Fits All scholarship on “educational expenses,” which includes private school tuition, homeschooling expenses and other extracurricular activities.
While airfare and theme parks are prohibited, families could, for instance, still spend the entire $8,000 on approved extracurriculars like swim lessons.
HB455, however, seeks to impose a cap on any extracurricular spending.
“Overwhelmingly, the majority of scholarship funds are being used on tuition and curriculum,” Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Riverton, the bill’s sponsor, said before members of the House Education Committee last week.
“There were [some purchases] that were not in line with the original intent of the bill,” she continued, “and, so, I think it is very fair to have a cap in place.”
The goal, she said, is to make sure extracurriculars and physical education don’t “consume the entirety of someone’s $8,000 scholarship.”
The bill would limit both extracurricular and physical education expenses to 20% — or $1,600 each — of the total scholarship awarded, allowing a maximum of $3,200 to be spent on those categories combined.
Pierucci clarified that curriculum-based extracurriculars like art, music and foreign languages would not count toward the cap so long as they align with Utah Core Standards.
Read the full story at sltrib.com.
This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.