After the first year awarding Utah Fits All scholarships, the state’s version of a school choice voucher program, lawmakers approved legislation to clean up some of the inconsistencies the state and parents witnessed in the program.
One of the factors lawmakers voted to correct was how the Utah State Board of Education contracts a third-party manager to run the program. Now, after Gov. Spencer Cox signed the bill into law on March 6, ACE Scholarships is counting its final days as that contractor.
Utah Fits All has quietly experienced challenges beyond the very public lawsuit the Utah Education Association filed against it, challenging its constitutionality. Lawmakers have spoken about internal issues that needed to be solved, especially with homeschooled students who received scholarships. Legislators hinted that there were inconsistencies with the approval of expenses filed by parents, unnecessary administrative fees charged, and location and household income irregularities that pushed the Legislature to set up some new guardrails for the program — to the dismay of a number of participants.
When the state established Utah Fits All, it required the Utah State Board of Education to pay a contractor to run the program. After a request for proposals process, ACE Scholarships, in partnership with ClassWallet, a company that provides a purchasing and reimbursement platform for public funds, won a bid to manage the program for five years.
The board of education awarded $9 million for that effort. But, this year, the contract was terminated after just one year “for convenience,” Scott Jones, USBE’s contract administrator for the Utah Fits All program, said in a virtual townhall on Wednesday, without elaborating further.
“We did terminate the contract for convenience. That’s it. That’s the only reason we did it,” Jones said. “We can do that. It’s very clear up front. We’ve canceled contracts before. This is not the first time, and it likely will not be the last time that something like that happened.”
“Welcome” changes to the law, which added more specific guidelines in the selection of the program manager, added to the decision to terminate the contract, Jones said. But, ACE Scholarships is welcome and encouraged to reapply for another shot at program manager.
“We recognize that new legislation brings change,” ACE Scholarships wrote in a statement posted on the program’s website. “In response to recent changes in Utah state law, ACE Scholarships is working closely with the Utah State Board of Education to ensure uninterrupted services and a seamless transition of UFA program management responsibilities to USBE by May 15, 2025.”
With that end date in mind, the board of education released a request for proposals so there’s a transition to a new manager on May 16. Despite the change, Jones doesn’t anticipate delays in the program, he said.
HB455, sponsored by Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Herriman, made changes to its definition of program manager, removing a provision that mandated the contractor to be a nonprofit organization, and setting guidelines for processing scholarship applications, coordinating with vendors, providing customer service to participants and performing other operational duties.
Also, clearing the way for a smooth transition should the board of education need to transition out of its current program administrator.
“We also put specific program manager requirements in place, prohibiting the program manager and financial administrator from charging fees of students,” Pierucci told the House Education Committee in February. “That makes no sense, because they are already receiving funding for running the program.”
The bill also eliminated a requirement in the original bill that disqualified potential program managers that administered scholarships under the Carson Smith Opportunity Scholarship — another Utah education choice program for students with disabilities, which is managed by Children First Education Fund. The legislation also establishes that the Utah Fits All program manager is required to coordinate with the Carson Smith Opportunity Scholarship manager “to ensure that a student is not receiving duplicate benefits.”
Read the full report at UtahNewsDispatch.com.
