Signed into law on January 28, 2023, for the 2024-2025 school year, the Utah Fits All Scholarship Program was introduced to provide Utah K-12 students with funds from the Education Savings Account (ESA) to customize their education. Part of this customization can include enrolling students in various BYU Continuing Education (CE) offerings, including BYU Online High School and BYU Independent Study.
This customization offered by the scholarship has made all the difference for Rebecca Briggs, a homeschooling parent of six. Briggs first learned about the scholarship from a neighbor and decided to look into it further herself. Upon doing so, she discovered that the scholarships' funds could be used for a wide range of approved educational experiences, including online courses, curriculum, tutoring, extracurricular activities, and private school tuition.
Briggs had already enrolled her children in BYU CE programs and had seen just how effective they had been in their learning. She was trying to use mostly free resources, with the occasional BYU CE course as she could afford them. "We were like, OK, we're sold. This scholarship will allow us to take all the BYU CE courses we want. We got to do it this way," Briggs explained. Everything changed when the family applied and was approved for Utah Fits All funds. Since receiving the scholarship, Briggs explained, "[It] has covered everything for my kids to do all of their education as customized as they want.”
Outside of now being more affordable, Briggs noted that she loved the flexibility of BYU’s online courses. Because many of the courses are asynchronous, her children are able to learn material at their own pace, some courses completing in just a few weeks and some spanning several months. "My kids have found that the way they learn best is doing one class at a time and going all in," Briggs explained. "They can just focus on mastering one subject at a time and then move on to the next subject.”
Briggs also believes that these courses provide meaningful academic rigor. After exploring various educational options time and time again, she said her family immediately noticed the difference between BYU’s offerings and other options. One of her girls took a BYU French class concurrently with a public-school French class and advanced faster and more thoroughly with the BYU version.
Another of her girls tried an English class through East Shore Online (very low-cost online courses through their school district) and begged to switch back to the BYU English courses because they were way more interesting and she learned so much more. "I would say within the first week of switching to BYU online classes, we realized this is far superior to everything else we've done," Briggs said. One of her girls used the UFA scholarship to take three BYU CE college-level courses to get a head start on her higher education and is now a sophomore at BYU, thanks to the scholarship.
The greatest value the scholarship has brought Briggs’ family is the freedom to choose the educational opportunities that work best for her children’s needs. "I would say that the Utah Fits All scholarship has allowed my kids to get the education and take advantage of opportunities they wanted without money being the reason they couldn't," she said.
As more Utah families explore educational opportunities available to them, Briggs hopes that they consider BYU CE using Utah Fits All funds. "It's a game changer," Briggs said. "There were so many classes my kids wanted to take and couldn't take because it would cost too much. With these funds, it's just opened up so many doors.”
If you are interested in seeing if Utah Fits All and BYU CE works for you or your family visit: https://is.ce2.byu.edu/ufa-options