A seaboat tour in Seattle. Visits to medieval castles in England. Surf lessons in Hawaii. A meet-and-greet with a giant panda named Hua Mei at the San Diego Zoo.
Those activities account for hundreds of taxpayer dollars that Utah parents spent through the state’s more than $80 million school voucher program in its inaugural year, according to data provided to The Salt Lake Tribune.
An initial roughly 10,000 students received an $8,000 scholarship for the 2024-25 school year through the program, known as Utah Fits All. The money could be spent on a broad range of educational expenses — including homeschooling supplies, private school tuition and extracurricular activities — with few limitations.
A Tribune analysis of expense records obtained in March through a public records request shows that collectively, families over the course of the program’s first eight months used their funds on more than 7,300 vendors, including schools and businesses.
The analysis of more than 180,000 transactions found that while parents spent close to $2 million on activities and field trips, including to other states and abroad, most of the money went to private schools and other academic institutions and resources.
The transactions from August 2024 to March 2025 amounted to about $61.5 million. All were approved by ACE Scholarships, the organization first hired by the state to oversee and manage the voucher program. Not all of its more than $80 million budget had been spent by the time The Tribune received the records.
ACE has since been replaced by a company called Odyssey, and more changes to the program are expected this upcoming school year if Utah Fits All is allowed to continue after a judge in April ruled it unconstitutional but allowed it to continue operating while the state appeals.
Most spending went to academics, learning
The Tribune spent about two months analyzing the data, ultimately sorting expenses into six major categories:
The largest chunk of money went to expenses that The Tribune categorized as academics and learning – about $36 million overall, or nearly 60% of the money spent.
[Read more: How we did it: The Tribune breaks down how Utah parents spent their school vouchers]
Most of that spending went to 114 different private schools, which received a combined $24.2 million, including nearly 2,200 payments that comprised a recipient’s entire $8,000 scholarship.
Private schools also made up 14 of the top 25 vendors by spending.
Online retailer Amazon accounted for the most money spent at a single vendor, raking in $5.8 million through more than 51,000 transactions. Other retail giants like Best Buy, Costco and Walmart helped round out the top 25 list.
Purchases through Amazon also bumped The Tribune’s spending category “other” into the second spot at $8.8 million. That category included subcategories like purchases at thrift stores and pawn shops.
Most of the “other” category amounted to $8.7 million in unknown spending The Tribune couldn’t otherwise categorize, because those reimbursement records didn’t specify what exactly was bought.
ACE required families to specify their purchases with receipts, invoices or both so ACE could adequately review their payment and reimbursement requests, according to an emailed statement. But The Tribune didn’t have access to those receipts and invoices.
Extracurriculars accounted for $7.3 million in spending, The Tribune found, and parents spent about $1 million or more of that on three subcategories:
Setting up classroom space at home totaled $6.7 million, The Tribune found, including spending $641,214.37 on furniture and $339,800.93 on internet.
And families spent $1.9 million on field trips or other enrichment activities, like taking lessons at ski resorts and learning to scuba dive, according to The Tribune’s analysis.
The smallest amount The Tribune sorted went to physical and health education, with $676,221 in spending. Of that, the largest chunk went to gyms and fitness classes. Climbing and “ninja” obstacle course gyms were especially popular.
How Utah’s voucher program stacks up to other states
Eighteen states have voucher programs similar to Utah’s, where funds aren’t limited to private school tuition and families can spend them on a variety of educational needs, according to EdChoice, a school choice advocacy organization. These programs are commonly called “education savings accounts,” or ESAs.
What sets Utah’s apart is that about 80% of voucher recipients here are homeschoolers, state officials have said — higher than other states. That makes for an especially complex program, officials said, because rather than reimbursing tuition checks, homeschooled recipients’ expenses can vary wildly.
Despite that variety, the expenses themselves are nothing out of the ordinary, said Josh Cowen, an education and school choice policy expert.
“It’s basically the same [program] as everywhere,” Cowen said after reviewing The Tribune’s analysis. “Still, the biggest categorical [expense] is private school tuition, and that’s true in every other state with as permissive structure as Utah.”
Cowen is a professor of education policy at Michigan State University. He’s written widely about education politics and school choice, including his book “The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers,” an investigation into the history of publicly funded school choice programs.
The executive director of Utah Education Fits All, Robyn Bagley, felt differently, arguing that no two programs “look exactly alike.” The nonprofit describes itself as the state’s “advocacy watchdog” for the Utah Fits All program but is not formally affiliated.
Bagley pointed to states like Texas, which have “taken a cautious approach with homeschoolers, particularly in funding amounts and regulation of expenses,” she said.
Texas’ program allocates up to $2,000 to homeschoolers while offering up to $30,000 to students with disabilities and $10,000 to students attending private schools, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has reported.
“Others, such as Arizona and Florida, have opted for more generous and equitable policies,” Bagley said.
But even in those states, Cowen said the purchases aren’t significantly different from Utah’s. He specifically pointed to trampolines ($112,668.25 spent in Utah) and kayaks ($13,544.93) as some of the most common purchases he’s seen.
“It is really remarkable how consistent this is across states and what these parents are spending the money on,” Cowen said.
That could reflect “organic, local demand,” he added, but it’s more likely the influence of online communities and national school choice organizations, he surmised.
“It does not mean that there’s this innate support or opposition…for vouchers,” Cowen said. “In fact, when you put the issue directly to voters, they reject it.”
Voters in Kentucky, Nebraska and Colorado rejected similar program proposals in 2024.
Utahns also shot down the state’s first attempt to pass a voucher program in 2007. That year, lawmakers passed what would have been the nation’s “most comprehensive” voucher program, HB148, according to Utah Citizens’ Counsel.
The measure generated fierce opposition from parents, teachers and public school advocates who rallied to get a referendum on the ballot. Put to a vote, 62% rejected it.
Fifteen years later, lawmakers tried again, this time proposing the “Hope Scholarship,” a $36 million voucher program. The bill failed to pass the House.
In 2023, lawmakers succeeded, passing Utah Fits All under HB215 and tying an ongoing $6,000 salary and benefits raise for public school teachers to the bill’s passage.
Initially, the state allocated $42 million to the new voucher program for the 2024-25 school year. But lawmakers in February 2024 injected another $40 million into the pot, citing “high demand” months before the program launched. That doubled the amount of available scholarships from 5,000 to roughly 10,000.
Cowen argued that while voucher program budgets are usually a fraction of what states spend on public education overall — about $8 billion in Utah — they’re still “outsized expenditures” compared to the small number of students they serve.
In Utah, for instance, despite a decrease in public school enrollment, 90% of the state’s school-aged children still attend public school. An estimated 5% are homeschooled, according to Voices for Utah Children.
“From the state budget perspective, you’re still funding a separate private sector of education,” Cowen said. “And the fact that the private sector is run out of more homes than private schools, it still is a separate sector of education.”
The way those funds are then used in homes can be “dubious,” he said, making it difficult to justify them as taxpayer-funded expenses.
But he said he doesn’t blame parents when the state says they can buy trampolines and they think, “Sure, I’ve got a hyperactive 7-year-old.”
“They’re only doing what policymakers incentivize them to do,” Cowen said.
Little oversight of program manager
The law that created Utah Fits All, which has since been amended, initially included few spending restrictions.
Approved purchases included typical educational items like computers, workbooks, textbooks and curriculum, along with “supplies or other equipment” related to a student’s “educational needs.”
Therapy, behavioral services, extracurricular activities, field trips and other “educational experiences” were also permitted, though the then-law offered no specifics about what qualified as a legitimate field trip or “educational experience.”
The program’s manager, initially ACE Scholarships, was granted broad oversight authority, including deciding which expenses to approve or deny.
The Utah State Board of Education was conversely given “limited oversight” and is not responsible for monitoring how funds are spent, according to a statement from the state agency.
“USBE was not allowed to monitor or audit ACE, and we will not be doing so with Odyssey either,” Deputy Superintendent Scott Jones said in a statement. “The success of the program is their responsibility in all respects.”
The Office of the State Auditor is required by law to conduct regular audits of the program manager, but those “limited reviews” do not examine individual expenses, according to agency spokesperson Rahn Rampton. The first such review, completed in November, reported no findings.
The program manager is only required to report certain data to the Legislature’s Education Interim Committee by Sept. 1 of each year, though those reporting requirements have changed since the program’s original law was passed.
Some expenses didn’t align with program’s intent, state lawmakers say
Jones doesn’t feel that purchases like boat tours and trampolines fell within the scope of the original law. He pointed to the new law passed earlier this year that now governs Utah Fits All, HB455.
The measure took effect May 7 and imposed new expense restrictions and tiered scholarship amounts, rather than the original $8,000 allocated to all recipients this school year.
“Our policymakers reacted as quickly as possible to ensure unallowable practices and purchases were stopped as demonstrated by that bill,” Jones said. “USBE staff responded quickly as well, further preventing even more issues.”
The bill’s sponsors, Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Riverton, and Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore, R-Sandy, told The Tribune in a joint statement that it was a direct response to what lawmakers viewed as inappropriate expenses.
“When we became aware that the program manager may be approving expenses that did not align with the scholarship’s intended educational purpose, we acted swiftly,” the statement said.
The goal of the changes, they said, is to “ensure that every dollar is spent appropriately and in direct support of student learning.”
Pierucci and Cullimore added that “it became clear that a change in program management was necessary.”
In March, the state terminated its multiyear deal with ACE Scholarships, citing “convenience” as the official reason for parting ways with the program manager less than a year after formally launching Utah Fits All.
Following a bidding process, USBE in May hired Odyssey to take ACE’s place. Odyssey soon announced it was restarting the Utah Fits All application process, which had closed May 1. It also temporarily halted more 2024-25 voucher spending, which was supposed to continue until June 30, in order to review and reconcile balances for families with pending reimbursements, receipts and transactions.
The decision, Odyssey’s website states, stemmed from “incomplete” and “inconsistent” information provided by the program’s former manager.
ACE officials attested they provided complete data as required to USBE, and that after the law change, “responsibility for collecting this new data rests with the new program manager.”
In general, ACE officials have said they followed all guidelines outlined in Utah law.
“We maintained a published list of items that were approved or restricted based on Utah State Board of Education guidance, Utah State Statute, the UFA law, and clear educational parameters,” ACE officials said in a statement.
“If a specific request was not on the list, the family could request pre-approval for that item. For requests that were not obvious in their educational context,” the statement continued, “we required additional information to be submitted, such as lesson plans, objectives, and outcomes.”
A personalized education
“Most of the things that you see on the list, these are things that get covered in schools,” Nina Wolf said after reviewing The Tribune’s analysis.
Wolf chairs the board of the Utah Home Education Association and homeschools her children. She said her children do not receive the Utah Fits All scholarship.
Homeschooling, Wolf said, tends to be highly personalized, and while teaching methods may deviate from more traditional ones, they are still educational.
“There’s a lot of effort to integrate and make it very hands-on,” she said. “If you’re teaching a child to spell, you’re not just going to sit there with a spelling book. You’re going to break out a Scrabble game or Bananagrams.”
She argued there’s a double standard when it comes to funding education: If a public school offers a unique program, like a gardening class, it’s seen as a mark of an excellent school, but if a homeschooling parent uses public money to build a garden, people suddenly question whether that counts as education.
“There’s a tendency to look and say, ‘Home education should look like textbooks and desks and a chalkboard or a whiteboard and maybe a laptop,’” she said.
Wolf made the case for toys like Lego, which are commonly used in public STEM education programs. Utah even has its own Lego robotics league, where science, technology, engineering and math students in second through eighth grade can build their own robots using Lego.
“I think it’s really hard, from the outside, to know exactly what is working for somebody’s kid,” Wolf said.
Wolf said there’s an argument to be made that some of the seemingly more questionable purchases, like trampolines, for instance, align with Utah Core Standards, which include physical education. It just looks different when it occurs at home, she said.
“A lot of people, they don’t have room for a playground in their yard,” Wolf said. “Kids at a school would have playground equipment.”
Still, Wolf said, there needs to be guardrails on what kind of spending is appropriate.
“I do agree that there are times that it goes too far,” Wolf said. “A whole family … shouldn’t be able to get ski passes for the year.”
And, going back to her Lego example, she said there’s a difference between buying Lego for educational purposes and buying the $470 Harry Potter Hogwarts Lego Castle (which voucher spending records show was purchased on at least one occasion).
“This is about the child, and so we have to look to what their needs are, and be very focused on that,” Wolf said.
No more ski passes, plus other new restrictions
Before HB455, families could use the full $8,000 scholarship for extracurricular activities if they wanted. That won’t be allowed going forward, assuming Utah’s higher courts allow the program to continue into its second year.
Under the new law, extracurricular and physical education expenses are each capped at 20% of a student’s scholarship.
Curriculum-based extracurriculars like art, music and foreign languages wouldn’t count toward the cap, so long as they align with Utah Core Standards, according to the law.
Under the new varied scholarship amounts, homeschoolers ages 5-11 will now receive $4,000, and those 12-18 will get $6,000. Private school students, regardless of age, will continue to qualify for the full $8,000.
Unlike the former law, HB455 also explicitly bans certain expenses:
The purchase of musical instruments is also prohibited, though renting them is OK.
The new law still doesn’t spell out what counts as a legitimate field trip expense, but it does clarify what qualifies as an “educational supplement.” These are defined as materials, tools and equipment that are directly tied to Utah Core Standards; are not primarily for “entertainment or general enrichment purposes;” and are educational rather than “recreational in nature.”
Electronics and computers remain an allowable expense, but a voucher recipient can only purchase them once “every three years.”
“Extracurricular enrichment plays a vital role in a child’s overall educational journey — and homeschoolers, in particular, have shown how much they value these opportunities,” Bagley said. “In setting spending caps on this category, legislators aimed to strike a balance: allowing families to continue choosing the activities most meaningful to their children, while ensuring that core academics and essential learning tools remain prioritized.”
Next school year will also see a 25% funding boost, bringing the state’s total voucher spending to more than $100 million for 2025-26. Gov. Spencer Cox approved the 2026 public education budget in March.
Note to readers • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.
