Utah Governor To Veto School Choice Bill Unless His Demands Are Met

In a time of turmoil over public schools and how they are run, it is perhaps unsurprising that a state would consider a school choice bill and that a governor would threaten a veto. But the reasoning that Utah’s governor gave for his veto might be the strangest one yet.

Spencer Cox, a Republican, has served as Utah’s governor for just over a year. Despite threatening to veto a school choice bill recently passed by his state’s legislature, he says he supports the concept. “I am an advocate for choice,” Cox said in a press conference earlier this month. “I think parents should be able to use taxpayer money in other ways.”

But his complaints have nothing to do with the bill in question, H.B. 331. “I’m all in on vouchers. But we have a long way to go before we get there,” Cox further explained. “With the price of housing, with inflation happening right now, I don’t want to live in a state where teachers can’t buy a home… When teachers are making $60,000 a year to start, I will fully support vouchers.”

Currently, the average starting salary for Utah teachers is around $35,700. An increase of more than 70-percent per teacher would constitute a drastic realignment in education funding since the state average teacher salary is only $50,000. By increasing the starting salary to $60,000, Utah would be paying its starting teachers more than any other state in the country, despite having a cost of living slightly below the national average.

Despite Cox’s charact