Background/Footnotes: In the 1988 election, voters turned down a referendum proposal to create a tax credit for education expenses.[1] The proposal would have provided parents a credit equal to half of state per-pupil spending for elementary school students and 60 percent for secondary school students.[2]

On March 7, 1990, then-Governor Norman Bangerter signed a school choice bill that expanded the state's 43-year-old interdistrict school choice program. Under this legislation, districts could choose not to participate, and participating districts had to establish standards for review of applications. Formerly, districts could decide whether to take a student on a case-by-case basis.[3] The law was later amended to make open enrollment mandatory.[4]

According to a 1997 survey by R. T. Nielsen, 79 percent of Utah voters supported parental choice laws that included public and private schools. The survey, conducted for the Utah Coalition for Freedom in Education, also found that 61 percent of respondents supported using tax dollars to provide scholarships to children to attend a school of choice.[5]

In 1997, the Utah Senate passed a tuition tax credit proposal, Senate Bill 61, which offered refundable state income tax credits to parents who chose to send their children to non-public schools. The amount of the proposed credit was equal to the tuition at a private school or the per-pupil expenditure of public schools, whichever was less. The bill was defeated in the House.[6]

In 1998, the legislature approved a relatively weak charter school law. It stipulated that, to qualify for conversion to a charter school, a public school must show evidence of support from two-thirds of its parents and teachers. The law instituted a cap of eight charters and required that teachers in charter schools must be certified.[7] The Utah School Boards Association filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of this charter school law on the grounds that the state constitution authorizes the Utah State Board of Education to control one uniform system. On January 19, 2001, the Utah Supreme Court upheld the law, calling the challenge "unreasonable." The court ruled that the state constitution allows the state school board to oversee charter schools, as it grants the board authority over "such other schools and programs that the Legislature may designate."[8]

Another tax credit bill was introduced in 2000. House Bill 401, the Income Tax-Private Investment in Education Act, would have provided a dollar-for-dollar tax credit to parents who transfer their children to a private school. In addition, any taxpayer (either individual or business) would have been eligible to receive a tax credit for contributions to the tuition of a child in private school, and taxpayers could have received a credit for contributions to organizations that provide private school scholarships to low-income children. The bill died in the House.[9]

On March 19, 2001, then-Governor Michael Leavitt signed S.B. 169, the Charter School Amendments bill. The law gives school districts the authority to approve new charter schools and allows schools whose charters have been rejected to appeal to the State Board of Education. The cap for state-issued charters was raised to 16 charter schools for the 2002-2003 school year.[10]

In January 2001, Children First Utah, in conjunction with Children First America, launched a $2 million, statewide, privately funded voucher program. The scholarships provide up to 50 percent of students' tuition costs each year, up to a maximum of $1,700 per child.[11]

In 2001, then-Representative John Swallow (R-Sandy) introduced H.B. 138, which would have given taxpayers a non-refundable $1,500 tax credit for tuition, textbooks, or school fees. The bill was approved in committee but received no further action.[12]

Three school choice bills were introduced during the 2002 legislative session. State Senator D. Chris Buttars (R-Salt Lake) introduced S.B. 69, which would have given taxpayers a credit of up to $2,116 for contributions to scholarship organizations or for the tuition costs of individual students. To be eligible to receive tuition support, either directly or through scholarship organizations, families would have had to earn less than $30,000 and students could not have been attending a private school. The bill was approved in committee but stalled in the Senate.[13]

Representative David Cox (R-56) introduced H.B. 76, which would have allowed a county commission to form new school districts out of existing districts either in response to a citizens' petition or at the request of the State Board of Education, the legislature, the governor, or the existing school district. If the bill had become law, a popular vote would have been necessary to ratify a commission's decision to create a new district. The bill was passed by the House but suffered a narrow defeat in the Senate.[14]

The governor signed S.B. 138, the Charter School Amendments bill, on March 26, 2002. S.B. 138 allowed the State Board of Education to sponsor up to six New Century High Schools (magnet charter schools focused on math, technology, and science); allowed local school districts to sponsor an unlimited number of conversion schools and start-up charter schools, as long as they enrolled no more than 4 percent of a district's student population; and authorized the state superintendent to allocate grants for both start-up costs and ongoing expenses of charter schools.[15]

In 2003, the Utah Senate passed a tax credit bill, S.B. 34, by a vote of 20 to 8. The proposal was included in the education omnibus bill, S.B. 154. The tax credits, however, were removed from S.B. 154 before the final vote. The Utah House voted 41 to 32 to put a non-binding referendum, House Concurrent Resolution 3, on the November 2004 ballot that asked: "Should Utah's public tax dollars or potential tax dollars be used to fund private education through the use of a tuition tax credit?" The bill died in the Senate.[16]

In 2004, state Representative Jim Ferrin (R-58) introduced H.B. 271 which would (as amended) provide a parents a refundable income tax credit for private school expenses. The legislation limited the credit to 50 percent of the expenses up to $1,500 for kindergarten and $2,000 for students in 1st through 12th grade. Students could not have attended private schools before January 1, 2004. Before committee amendments, the bill also provided corporate tax credits for donations to tuition scholarship organizations. The bill, as amended, passed out of the House Judiciary Committee on February 19, 2004, but did not receive a floor vote in the full House of Representatives.[17] The Legislature, however, appropriated $150,000 to study the impact of the bill. The Legislative Management Committee chose Utah State University (USU) to conduct the study. In November, USU reported that tax credits for private school tuition could save the state as much $1.3 billion over 13 years.[18]

The governor signed H.B. 152 in March 2004 to create the State Charter School Board to authorize charter schools subject to the approval of the State Board of Education and expanding the number of charter schools the board may sponsor to 24. The bill also requires the State Charter School Board to study existing state law and administrative rules for the purpose of determining which ones are burdensome to charter schools.[19]

In 2004, Representative J. Morgan Philpot (R-45) introduced H.B. 115, the "Carson Smith Scholarships for Students with Special Needs Act," to give students with disabilities scholarships to attend private schools. Eligible students would include those who had been enrolled in public school for the year prior and had an Individual Education Program in accordance with the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Students receiving 180 minutes or more per day of special services would receive a scholarship of up to $5,455. The bill passed the Utah House, 43-29, and in the Senate, 17 to 8. However, on March 23, 2004, the governor vetoed it.[20]

In 2005, Representative Merlynn Newbold (R-50), along with 24 co-sponsors, reintroduced H.B. 115 as H.B. 249.[21] The bill passed the House by a 58 to 17 vote on February 21, the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee on February 23, and then the full Senate two days later (21 in favor and 6 opposed, with 2 members not voting).[22] Governor John Huntsman, Jr., signed the bill on March 10, making Utah the second state to provide vouchers to special education students.[23] The bill is retroactive for to 2004-05 school year.

At the beginning of the 2005 legislative session Representative Ferrin reintroduced tax credit legislation, formerly H.B. 271, as H.B. 39, altering the legislation so that the benefits would be means-tested. Families of private school students eligible for the federal Free and Reduced Priced Lunch program (household income below $34,873 per year) would be eligible for tuition tax credits of up to $3,700. Families with higher household incomes, up to 300 percent above the FRL level, would receive less.[24] Initially, the bill would also have allowed parents of current private school students to qualify for the credits--not just parents transferring a student from a public to a private school.[25] But Representative Ferrin removed this provision after reviewing a fiscal analysis of the bill.[26] The bill was voted down on the House floor, 34 to 40, at the end of February.[27]

State Senator Mark Madsen introduced S.B. 59, a bill for homeschool students, in January 2005. The bill stipulates that school boards cannot require homeschooled students to take state assessments, and it prevents the state from requiring homeschooling parents to report details of their curriculum to the state. In February, the bill passed the Senate 26-0, with 3 abstaining, and the House 70-0, with 5 abstaining. Governor Huntsman signed the bill on March 18.[28]

A poll conducted in late January and early February by Dan Jones & Associates for The Deseret Morning News and KSL-TV found that while 24 percent of Utah residents "strongly favor" a "tuition tax credit bill based on income," 33 percent of residents strongly oppose the idea. Forty-three percent of residents were strongly or somewhat in favor, while 50 percent of residents were strongly or somewhat opposed.[29]

In January 2006, Rep. Brad Dee (R-Washington Terrace) introduced H.B. 340, a bill that would create a voucher program for specific student groups. Students could receive vouchers worth up to $5,000, depending on family income. The student groups that would be eligible are students new to the state, students transferring from public to private schools, and low-income students currently attending private schools. The bill has been referred to the House Education Committee.[30] H.B. 340 stipulates that public schools would not lose money when students transfer to private schools.

The House Education Committee also passed H.B. 181 in February (9-3 with 3 members not voting), which would provide vouchers to pay for tutoring help to students with low scores on the state's basic skills test.[31] Shortly after passing this bill, the House Committee passed H.B. 184 (8-4), which would provide vouchers worth $500 - $3,500 to students moving from public to private school or to low-income private school students.[32] While H.B. 184 died in the House, H.B. 181 was approved by both chambers by March 1 and was signed by the governor on March 17.[33]

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