Utah’s floundering teachers’ union, the UEA, sued to stop the implementation of the Utah Fits All Scholarship. Makes me wonder, why did they wait over a year to do this?
It’s a valid question considering the law was passed in January of 2023, almost a year and a half ago.
Why wait? The only logical reason is to try and disrupt the program’s implementation.
This lawsuit comes a little over a month before parents can begin spending the funds on their child’s education.
They could have sued when the law was signed into law in March of 2023. They could have sued when the State Board of Education began their search for a program manager in September of 2023. They could have sued when the State Board went under contract with the new program manager in November 2023. They could have even sued after the state legislature doubled the funding in March of this year.
But they waited.
They know that legal precedent is on the side of parents. The Supreme Court has ruled multiple times supporting education choice programs.
Lawsuits from the UEA’s parent organization have failed.
They know they don’t have legal ground to stand on. They only want to penalize the families that are choosing not to use public schools.
As Representative Candice Pierucci, the sponsor of the bill said, “The union’s scarcity mentality, and unwillingness to prioritize Utah children, shows just how out of touch they are with Utah parents and students.”
I couldn’t have said it better.
Education Policy Analyst
Jon is the Education Policy Analyst at Libertas Institute. He previously taught fifth and sixth grade and served as an elementary principal in Weber School District for 14 years.