Not All Public Schools Are Equal
There are drastic differences in the performance of public schools. Low-income neighborhood schools perform substantially below their counterparts in more affluent neighborhoods. Low-income families often choose where to live based on affordability. Their children are too frequently trapped in areas where schools are overwhelmed and underperforming. The performance disparity in public schools is sobering.

Parents Know Best
We believe that the only way to improve conditions for the underprivileged is to ensure that every child has access to a quality education. Parents - whose concern and love for their children exceeds the most responsible temporary caretakers - have the most intimate view of their children’s needs. They are also best suited, if not by education then by their interest and affection, to determine what institution will best meet their children’s unique needs. Our scholarships offer families alternatives to the drastically uneven quality of the public school system.

Pay Now or Pay Later
Ignorance and illiteracy spawn poverty. Poverty and economic disparity breed despair with crime and social discontent attending it. Education is our greatest hope in the war against poverty. While legislators wrestle to fix the thorny structural problems of the public schools, Children First Utah is providing opportunity to children whose parents are committed to rescuing them from a faulty system. All Utah children deserve the best education we can provide. We must put children first!

As many as 40 million school-aged children in the United States are at risk of either failing, dropping out, or falling victim to crime, drugs, teenage pregnancy, and chronic unemployment. Statistics show that such problems correlate strongly with ignorance and illiteracy. The costs are staggering. Children First Utah is committed to the advice of founding father Benjamin Franklin: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." For every child who receives a successful education, society averts the social consequences and costs of a failed adult.

Here are the startling demographic realities in Utah's public schools:

• Utah’s school-age population is exploding, expecting an increase of 140,000 new students over the next few years.
• In Utah, approximately half of Latinos fail to graduate from High School.
• Approximately half of American Indian, Hispanic, and Black students fail core curriculum tests each year.
• Only 11.5% of low income students in Utah go to college.