• According to new survey data, Utah law requires that local school boards share certain enrollment capacity information for each school on their district websites, but most respondents (69% of Utah registered voters) were unaware of this.
• There is high support among Utah registered voters for increasing district transparency of open enrollment information. Furthermore, high support exists among different political groups and age groups.
• Utah policymakers should feel confident pursuing district open enrollment transparency reform.

New Sutherland Institute/Y2 Analytics survey data provides insight into the current awareness of and desire for open enrollment data reform at the district level. 

Overall awareness of open enrollment laws

Utah law requires that local school boards share certain enrollment capacity information for each school on their district websites, but most respondents (Utah registered voters) were unaware of this. Specifically, respondents were asked, “Before taking this survey, were you aware that there were requirements for school districts to post information regarding open enrollment on their websites?” A large majority – 69% – of respondents said they were not aware, 7% said they were not sure if they were aware, and only 25% said they were aware. This suggests that there is a public-awareness gap about what open enrollment information ought to be available as required by statute. It may also suggest that many families have not found such information on their own. 

In a recent Sutherland Institute report, we published the results of a district website review to understand how many school districts comply with the section of law about posting specific pieces of open enrollment data in what we called an open enrollment “capacity report.”

We found that nearly half (20 out of 41 school districts) do not comply with the law’s requirement to share the capacity report, while a little more than half share partial or complete capacity reports. This is an area where we recommend increasing compliance with the current law so this information can be available to the public, parents and policymakers.

Overall support for open enrollment reforms of data transparency from districts

An overwhelming majority of Utah registered voters support making district open enrollment information more transparent to parents through better compliance.

When registered voters were asked if they would support making information about open enrollment laws more transparent to parents by ensuring compliance from school districts, 78% said they support this, 18% of Utah registered voters said they neither support or oppose this reform, and only 4% said they oppose it.

Support for this reform from other categories  

Notably, little difference existed between men and women. There was very high support for this among both men (81%) and women (79%), though slightly more for men.

Likewise, there is strong support for such a reform among each of the survey’s defined political groups. While there is very high support regardless of political group, one political group showed noticeably less support for this reform than others.

Survey results showed that 76% of Core Trump Voters, 84% of Republican Loyalists, 84% of Conservative or Republican Non-Trump Voters, and 74% of Non-Conservative, Non-Trump Voters support increasing transparency of open enrollment information at the district level. Though Non-conservative, Non-Trump voters have the lowest support among the groups, well over a supermajority still support the reform. This suggests that transparency as a broad policy goal transcends party lines, and open enrollment is a well-established, non-ideological type of public school choice in Utah.

For context, the category of Core Trump Voter (18% of Utah voters) includes anyone who voted in the 2024 general election for Donald Trump for president and either: (1) for Phil Lyman for governor, or (2) no other Republicans. Republican Loyalist (39% of Utah voters) includes anyone in the 2024 general election who voted for Trump, did not vote for Lyman, and voted for a Republican in the race for governor and/or U.S. Senate. Conservative or Republican Non-Trump Voter (9% of Utah voters) includes anyone who self-identified as a conservative, a Republican or a Republican-leaning independent and who did not vote for Trump in 2024. Non-Conservative, Non-Trump (35% of Utah voters) includes anyone who did not vote for Trump in 2024 and did not self-identify as a conservative or a Republican.

All age groups surveyed report majority support for such a reform as well, with the oldest and youngest Utah voters being most supportive. Specifically, 88% of voters over age 65 support this reform along with 85% of voters between ages 18-34.

The group with the lowest support (61%) were those between 35-44 years old, typically understood as part of the Millennial age group.

Maybe this suggests that older groups already view transparency for parents as key public policy and that the younger groups are impacted by a growing resurgence of parent-focused public policy.

Errors due to rounding

Overall importance of this reform to Utah registered voters

When asked how important it is that lawmakers address transparency of district open enrollment information for parents by ensuring compliance with open enrollment laws, 76% said it’s either very or somewhat important to them, while 23% said it’s either not very or not at all important.

Perceived importance based on different categories

Differences of opinion about the importance of this reform were clearer among political groups. A solid majority of all political groups reported these reforms to be at least somewhat important; however, Non-conservative, Non-Trump voters had a much smaller percentage (68%) who thought the reforms were somewhat or very important. Of course, this means a full 32% felt the reforms were not very or not at all important.

By comparison, 76% of Core Trump Voters, 86% of Republican Loyalists, and 82% of Conservative or Republican Non-Trump Voters said these reforms were at least somewhat or very important.

When it comes to this question based on age groups, those in the oldest groups had the highest percentage who said it was somewhat or very important to them that lawmakers address transparency of district open enrollment information. Specifically, 88% of those over age 65 and 80% of those ages 55-64 feel it’s important to them that lawmakers address this issue.

Likewise, among those in the youngest group, ages 18-34, 74% said it is somewhat or very important to them that lawmakers address this issue. This was the only group where a full majority (62%) landed in one response category (somewhat important). Likewise, 74% of those ages 45-54 feel it is somewhat or very important to them. For comparison, 65% of those ages 35-44 feel it is somewhat or very important to them.

Overall impact on how voters would vote for their legislators in the future

Whether lawmakers pursue these reforms could very well impact how respondents vote in elections, in most cases making it more likely that voters would vote to reelect their state legislator if they sought to improve district open enrollment transparency.

Survey respondents were asked, “If you learned that your Utah state senator or representative voted to make information about open enrollment more transparent to parents by ensuring compliance from school districts, would you be more or less likely to vote for them in the next election?” Almost half of respondents (49%) said they would be more likely to vote for their legislator in the next election, 47% said it would have no effect, and 5% said they would be less likely.

Likelihood of voting for legislators based on different groups

Political groups do differ on this question. Among Core Trump Voters, 65% said they would be somewhat or much more likely to vote for their legislator for taking this action. Notably, a full majority (51%) of this group responded by saying they would be somewhat more likely to vote for their legislator if they voted to make open enrollment information more available.

On the other end, a clear majority (61%) of Non-Conservative, Non-Trump voters said their legislator’s vote to support it would have no effect on the way they would vote for their legislator in the future. While a very small percentage of this group would actually be less likely to reelect their legislator for pursuing this reform, the results suggest this group does not have the same level of energy for this policy issue as other groups do.

Conclusion

Although there is an overall lack of awareness among Utah registered voters that certain open enrollment information should be made transparent by districts, there is high support for increasing district transparency of this information. Furthermore, high support exists among different political groups and age groups. Utah policymakers ought to feel confident pursuing this reform.