Some of those “extravagant” Utah Fits All purchases included a $4,800 Trek mountain bike and a $2,000 Crate & Barrel bookshelf, state auditors noted — all on taxpayers’ dime.
Lawmakers acted swiftly, though, and in the program’s second year, many such purchases were no longer allowed under new state-imposed restrictions.
Now, the spending report is in for the 2025-26 school year. So, how did Utah families spend the roughly $94 million allocated?
Private schools received bulk of the funds
Utah Fits All funds can only go to either private school students or kids in homeschool. No students enrolled in public school can participate.
For the 2025-26 school year, private school students received an $8,000 scholarship.
Homeschoolers received fewer funds: Kids between the ages of 5 and 11 got $4,000, and those age 12-18 qualified for $6,000, to help cover qualified expenses.
In total, 14,522 students participated, spending roughly $94.7 million, according to the latest report from Odyssey, the company the state hired to manage its voucher program.
The majority of those funds — some $57 million — was spent on tuition and fees. Of that, roughly $48 million went directly to private schools.
Another roughly $27 million went to various educational “goods,” as described in the report, such as curriculum materials, and the remaining $10.6 million went toward educational services, like tutoring.
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.