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.

Read the SL Tribune Editorial

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