SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Feb. 17, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — Gov. Spencer Cox revealed on Thursday that he doesn’t expect to sign The Hope Scholarship Bill, HB 331 should it be approved by Utah lawmakers during the 2022 General Legislature.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Candice Pierucci (R-Herriman), would create a scholarship that could be used for private school tuition, home-school pods and home schoolers.
“At some point, I will be absolutely willing to support vouchers,” Cox said at his monthly news conference on Thursday. “But that point is not now because we are underfunding our schools. You can’t take money that could go to our schools and allow it to go to private schools when you’re not fully funding the education system in our state.”
Cox said the average starting salary for a teacher in Utah is now $43,000.
“That’s actually a significant improvement, and it tells you how far we have to go,” he said, adding that average starting pay for teachers in many other states “is north of $50,000, maybe $53,000.”
With the increasing cost of housing, Cox said, “I don’t want to live in a state where teachers can’t buy a home. That’s not OK. And so when teachers are making $60,000 a year to start, I will fully support vouchers, I’m all in on vouchers. But we have a long way to go before we get there.”
