Utah Fits All Scholarship can continue until Utah Supreme Court decides constitutionality

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Despite ruling the Utah Fits All Scholarship was unconstitutional, a Utah judge has decided not to halt the program while the case likely makes its way to the Utah Supreme Court — meaning the program can continue as normal until there’s a ruling from the state’s high court.

Lawyers for the state of Utah, the Utah Education Association, and the manager of the Utah Fits All, ACE, each joined a status hearing Wednesday, where the parties agreed that the case would ultimately be decided by the Utah Supreme Court.

“I will not impose a remedy at this point. I’ll issue the final ruling [of all four claims], it will go up on appeal, there will be no injunction in place,” said Judge Laura Scott. “My understanding is that would mean things would just proceed as normal…unless and until we have a decision by the [Utah] Supreme Court,” she said.

Judge Scott’s April 18 ruling only decided two of the UEA’s four claims, that the scholarship was unconstitutional under Articles X and XIII of the state’s constitution, rendering the other two claims as moot.

Judge Scott said that if there was clarity that the parties needed, they could ask for it in her new order that she plans to issue by May 15.

“It is in everyone’s interest to move as expeditiously as possible into the Supreme Court,” said the lawyer for UEA, Raymay Ravindran.

“If we could have the matter presented before the Supreme Court with simply having the ruling itself stayed and have the entry of the remedy postponed until we get that guidance, that would be the state’s preference,” said Scott Ryther, who represents the state.

The main question from the parties was whether scholarships could continue to be paid out for the current school year’s recipients despite the ruling being deemed unconstitutional. The Utah State Board of Education is also in the middle of picking a new program manager, something lawyers said was supposed to happen this week. There’s also a May 1 deadline for new recipients to apply for next school year’s money.

“My client wants to make sure what its obligations are under the order,” said Tyson Langhofer, who represents ACE. “There is still a significant amount of money that needs to be paid out under the current year, because not everyone has drawn down on [their scholarship] and we want to make sure we understand what their obligations are.”

ACE has been terminated by the Utah State Board of Education and said that they’re currently applying to run the program again.

Their management of the current UFA program ends May 15, Langhofer said.

Teachers also stand to lose some of their salaries that are tied up in the Utah Fits All Scholarship because the law that created the program said it had to be “in effect” for that money to be realized.

Since 2023, funding for the scholarship has more than doubled from $40 million to over $100 million, which could reportedly fund about 10,000 students. The program offered a scholarship of up to $8,000 for eligible K-12 students, but thresholds were changed in the 2025 legislative session to $8,000 for private school, $6,000 for homeschoolers age 12-18, and $4,000 for those age 5 to 11.

“We are grateful for the court’s consideration of this important issue and are glad that parents and teachers will be able to continue to rely on the law while the underlying legal and constitutional questions at issue in this case are resolved,” said Attorney General Derek Brown.