Utah mom Allison Sorensen is disappointed with Gov. Cox’s promise to veto legislation to create the Hope Scholarship Program. “The governor claims to support school choice, but then he uses children as a bargaining chip to get higher salaries for teachers,” Sorensen notes.

At issue is HB 331, recently introduced by Utah Rep. Candice Pierucci (R‑District 52), which would establish taxpayer-funded scholarship accounts that families could use for approved educational expenses. Scholarships would be targeted for those who need it the most, with families at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level receiving the maximum funding.

Cox says he supports school choice, which would let kids from lower-income families afford other education options, but not until Utah teachers get a starting salary of $60,000. This, says Sorensen, is a slap in the face to parents. “Parents have been overlooked the past two years, despite bearing the brunt of teaching our kids when schools were closed. Teachers have been celebrated—and rightly so. But it’s sad that the governor is putting teacher salaries ahead of parents and our right to choose what’s best for our children.”

Sorensen now leads Education Opportunity 4 Every Child, whose mission is to put children and parents at the center of the education system and help ensure high-quality options are available to fit every child’s needs.

While Utah doesn’t currently have a broad school choice program, there is widespread support for the concept. An EdChoice tracking poll of Utah residents shows 75 percent of the general public and 77 percent of school parents support education savings accounts like the Hope Scholarship.

A recent Utah House of Representatives Revenue and Taxation Committee hearing featured dozens of witnesses commenting on the Hope Scholarship proposal, many of whom were parents sharing how beneficial the program would be for their children.

One mother of six, including two children with special needs in private school using a targeted scholarship program, discussed how each child is unique and needs options. She was troubled by the opposition speakers’ focus on schools, pointing out she doesn’t send her children to school to benefit the schools or the teachers. “We have schools for the children,” she said. “We owe it to the children to find a system for each of them that works for them.”

The governor turning choice into a fight between teachers and families is even more troubling since school choice benefits teachers, too. Several studies have found competition from private and charter schools leads to higher salaries in public schools. In addition, teachers who leave the public system can also negotiate their own salaries like most professionals do, rather than being lumped into a group contract with pay determined by years on the job.

Beyond salaries, school choice gives teachers more options to choose, just like it does for families. In states like Florida, with robust school choice programs, teachers are even starting their own schools. This lets them escape the bureaucracy and inflexibility of the public school system and really focus on teaching children.

Governor Cox has paid lip service to school choice but hasn’t taken concrete steps. After his election in 2021, his education advisor Brittany Cummins said, “School choice means different things to different people, but the governor is generally supportive of innovation and opportunity in education.” Major campaign contributions from the National Education Association and endorsements from the Utah Education Association’s political arm raise questions if true educational opportunity in Utah is being hemmed into the box of the public system.

The governor is presenting the public with a false dilemma. Pitting teachers against families to fund “the system” serves no one’s interests.

The focus of education should be the children, especially after the hardships of the last two years. By allowing some education funding to follow students, Utah can help parents access the educational options that work best for their children. Ultimately, this will benefit students, parents, and teachers.