Maria Ruiz is at the hospital again.
She’s with her husband, Carlos Dominguez, who is still receiving care to help him recover from health issues after suffering a stroke in 2021. His treatments have left Maria as the sole full-time breadwinner.
They live with their two teenage children in Tooele, a fast-growing bedroom community on the southwest shore of Utah’s Great Salt Lake.
Like many residents of Tooele County, Ruiz commutes about 50 miles to Salt Lake City, where she works as general manager at a Carl’s Jr. restaurant. Her salary barely covers the bills. Over the years, she has worked multiple jobs to scrape together enough money to cover the tuition necessary for her son and daughter to attend the schools that she says best meet their educational needs. In addition to her primary restaurant job, she cleaned houses, sold baked goods, and worked at a bakery.
Her son, a high school junior, also works nights at the Salt Lake City International Airport to pay for his car and related expenses and to help ease his mother’s financial burden.
Those burdens got lighter last year. Ruiz had been enduring financial hardship to send her children to private schools, where they felt seen and valued by teachers who helped instill moral virtues. Her children were awarded scholarships through the newly expanded Utah Fits All scholarship program, which meant Ruiz could get up to $8,000 per child to help cover tuition.
“I could pay off some medical debt,” she said, adding that she would look for better health insurance to help cover her husband’s treatment. She called the scholarship program “a rich blessing” to her family.
But the relief she felt from receiving the scholarships soon turned to worry when Utah’s largest teachers union filed a lawsuit asking a judge to strike down the program.
The arguments outlined in the complaint were like those filed in other states, where programs allow families to direct public funding to learning. The Utah lawsuit alleges the program diverts income tax dollars earmarked by the state constitution for the state’s public education system, higher education and disability services and funnels them to private schools and homeschools. The state attorney general argued that the program amounts to only 1% of the state’s $8.43 billion annual budget for public schools and that “nothing states or implies” that scholarship funds would be taken from money that would otherwise be appropriated to the public education system.
Utah’s attorney general is defending the case. Ruiz and Tiffany Brown, a mother of eight, including a child with special needs, joined attorneys at the Partnership for Educational Choice as intervenors to defend and protect the scholarship program.
A judge is expected to rule this spring. Ruiz said her children have struggled in their previous schools. When her son was in the fourth grade, she moved him to a public school to help make ends meet. But his academic performance suffered because “the teachers didn’t care about him,” she said. He also experienced bullying.
“I went in once or twice, and they don’t recognize you,” she said.
Despite the financial hardship, she returned him to private school, where he thrived. She said her kids’ private schools, which are both faith-based, instill moral virtues while also offering personalized education and a sense of community.
“At the private school, they recognize you on the phone,” she said. Classes were small, and school leaders knew every kid’s name.
Ruiz’s daughter, who witnessed her dad’s stroke and called 911 as her mother tended to him, is still recovering from that experience. The personal care she receives at her school has helped.
She said if the court strikes down the program, the effect on her family and others would be devastating.
“I wouldn’t be able to pay,” she said. She owes one school money, but she said the administrators have shown patience and compassion.
“They know me,” she said. “And they know I’m going to pay.”
Meanwhile, the medical bills continue to pile up. Ruiz’s husband is receiving physical therapy for a foot wound that required a toe amputation. Despite five eye surgeries for retinal problems and cataracts, he still has no sight in his right eye.
“His health has been a roller coaster,” she said. “It has been doctor after doctor after doctor.”
Ruiz believes it’s important to show the court and the public how much of a lifeline Utah Fits All is to families facing economic challenges.
“Regardless of our family’s needs, the money needs to be used for the right purpose, to benefit people’s lives. Many kids drop out because they don’t get treated properly.”
