Utah Should Put Its Money Where Its Children Are

"Don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value." -- Vice President Joe Biden

Throwing money at a problem doesn't solve it. But putting your money where your mouth is is both a practical and a symbolic way of showing the world what you think is important and what you intend to do about it.

In 2014, the state of Utah spent $45 million more dollars on services for children than in did in 2008. Which sounds good, until you figure in -- as the folks at Voices for Utah Children have done-- that the number of children living in the state climbed by nearly 59,000.

Divide that out and, over the same period that the number of people under the age of 18 climbed by 7 percent, the per-child spending fell by 6 percent -- from $5,746 per child in 2008 to $5,424 each last year.

Read the Complete Editorial in the Salt Lake Tribune

Comparing Education in Utah and Colorado

The two states are more similar than their politics indicate. Colorado spends about $2,000 more per student, but both are well below the national average. They also have somewhat similar demographics -- predominantly white with fast growing Latino populations. Both states saw their test scores fall over the first decade of the century, but Colorado's have bounced back some.

The Utah Foundation credits their commitment to early education. In Colorado, 34 percent of students attend publicly funded preschool and about 75 percent of kindergarteners are full time. In Utah, both those percentages are 13 percent. There is no state-funded preschool in Utah, only federal programs like Head Start.

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Paying for Utah Schools Takes More than Faith

Last week the state's top education official, Superintendent Brad Smith, scandalized more than a few good Utahns by paraphrasing Barry ("Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice") Goldwater in a speech to the Utah Taxpayers Association. He told the approving audience that state educators, parents and politicians should just get over their obsession with the fact that our state generally sits at the bottom of any list measuring per-pupil spending.

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Proud to be Number 51?

Utah public school students still get the smallest chunk of government education funding in the country. A report released by the U.S. Census Bureau Tuesday ranked the state's 2013 per-student spending -- $6,555 a year -- at the bottom of the heap for U.S. states.
The analysis found that per-student spending increased by nearly 1 percent nationwide between 2012 and 2013, to an average of $10,700.
But Utah's per-student funding earned a ranking of 51st -- behind all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

Read the Article in the SL Tribune

Teach Our Children the Love of Learning

If we want an education system that cultivates innovation, then we must create a culture where teachers are encouraged to be innovative and free to excite their students to be constant learners. It starts by policymakers doing for education what former Motorola Chairman Robert W. Galvin advised: "Leaders must have the courage to take a risk and believe in the abilities of the people in their organization ... Leaders must establish an environment in which workers feel respected and valued."

Read the Commentary in the Deseret News

Murray Superintendent Answers State Superintendent

For me personally, I was proud to stand with the Utah PTA, the Utah School Boards Association, the Utah Education Association, the Utah School Superintendents Association and the hundreds of individuals these groups represent, to advocate for the educational needs of our children.To those of you who stood by our children by writing your legislators, sending words of encouragement or participating in the rally, "Thank You!"

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Utah Still Lacks Respect for Teachers

Even State Superintendent Brad Smith -- a lawyer, not a teacher, by training -- took a cheap shot at teachers and their friends by petulantly dismissing a Capitol rally in support of the governor's plan as the behavior of petulant toddlers.

Cracks like that don't help.

Smith, most of all, should be creating an atmosphere where the teachers and administrators who do the unfathomably difficult work of trying to educate children of all social, economic and ethnic backgrounds are treated as full and respected partners in a job that is not only the most important task of government, but of the whole of society.

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Herbert Budget Should Be Approved

It is a quandary that likely is at least as old as Plato's open-air academy. How to make the most efficient use of time and money to do the best job educating the next generation? If the answer were easy, it is unlikely that we would still be looking for it after more than 2,000 years.

That hasn't stopped members of the Utah Legislature from becoming a never-ending font of ideas that they are eager to sell as the silver bullet cure for public education. From private-school vouchers to iffy charter schools, from ever-changing testing regimes and over-simplistic grading systems to the idea that the next wave of technology will solve all of our problems.

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Some Legislators' Motives Questioned

The Utah Legislature seems to have taken the micromanaging of public education to a new level. Where there were once a dozen or so education measures proposed by lawmakers each year, we now regularly see more than 150 bills that impact our schools, teachers and students in a given year. This seems a bit disingenuous for legislators who claim to abhor government regulations and advocate for local control.

Read the Commentary by UEA President, Sharon Gallagher-Fishbaugh

Davis Teacher, Jill Major, Expresses Frustration

I teach 31 K-6th-grade students who have mild to moderate disabilities in reading, writing and math. I just read in the Deseret News about the 2 percent base budget cut from education ("House, Senate approve base budgets," Feb. 10). Rep. Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville, said, "It's an exercise that will prepare them (so that) when the storms that are out there somewhere do start to roll across the horizon, we're ready." The evidence plainly demonstrates that storms have been swirling around and through Utah education with hurricane-force winds for years.

Read the Article in the Deseret News

No More Excuses

The Utah system for funding K-12 education is broken. It's a yo-yo of uncertainty. For a generation every February, the state fiscal analysts, with some drama, release state revenue projections. If they look good, Utah funds education. If not, we tell our children, "Sorry, maybe next year."

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Time To Invest in Public Schools

The governor has put his money where his mouth is in terms of local control. Much of the new money in his budget would flow to school districts without strings on how to spend it. It remains to be seen if the Legislature can be so hands-off. Whoever makes the calls will need to focus these resources, and it shouldn't be for a massive technology vendor (iPad in every hand) or across-the-board raises.

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