A $6,000 Apple MacBook Pro. A $4,800 Trek mountain bike. A $2,000 Crate & Barrel bookshelf.
Families bought all of this – and more – with taxpayer dollars through Utah’s school voucher program during the 2024-25 school year, according to a newly released report by state auditors.
The multi-million program, known as Utah Fits All, just wrapped its second year and is entering its third. In its inaugural year, 10,000 students each received an $8,000 scholarship.
The money could be spent on a broad range of educational expenses — including homeschooling supplies, private school tuition and extracurricular activities — with few limits.
Much has changed since the program’s debut, including caps on extracurricular spending and prohibitions on purchases like furniture.
Still, auditors concluded that while those legal guardrails didn’t exist during the 2024-25 school year, some scholarship funds were used “for wasteful and extravagant purchases inconsistent with principles of sound fiscal responsibility,” according to the report.
Read the full article by Carmen Nesbitt 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.