Education Funding in Utah

Kim R. Burningham of the State School Board sent this to UEA President Sharon Gallagher-Fishbaugh.  The information is good and falls in with the TEF message of Taxes, Economic Development, and Funding for Schools.

Previously, I compared Utah’s low per pupil funding for education to that of New Jersey which is nearly

three times as high, and where the State Court recently declared the New Jersey appropriation inadequate!   I thank you for the responses that many of you sent.  One individual, although still supportive of the general tenor of my article, said that Utah’s makes a high effort, insisting that our effort was among the highest in the nation.  I felt a need to respond.

The truth is that our efforts in Utah are rapidly declining.   

The Utah Foundation Research Report, April 2006 dispels the myth that Utah’s effort is relatively high.   This generally regarded objective source provided astounding analysis.   The Foundation concluded, “In the early and mid-1990s, the paradox [Utah’s high effort but low funding] was quite stark—Utah’s funding effort was very high, even fifth highest in the nation in 1995 and within the top states for most of the decade.  However, that paradox no longer exists. [Underlining and bolding mine]   Utah can no longer lay claim to a very high, or even above-average effort for funding education.”

In an alarming graph, the Utah Foundation demonstrated how Utah’s public education revenues and current spending per $1,000 of Personal Income has slid steadily downwards in recent years.   We may have been 5^th highest in revenue effort in 1995, but in 2004, we had dropped to 27^th.  In “spending”, we were 7^th highest in 1996, but by 2004 we had dropped to 36^th.   This, even though we have far more children per taxpayer.

Public Education Revenue Per $1,000 Personal Income  (The chart in the Utah Foundation report provides statistical analysis for every year.  I have selected four sample years for brevity sake.)

Year	Utah	Rank	U.S.	Utah % of U.S. Average
1992	$60.06	7	$49.09	122.3%
1995	59.59	5	48.71	122.3%
2000	51.32	16	48.05	106.8%
2004	49.62	27	50.53	98.2%

Public Education Current Spending Per !,000 Personal Income

Year	Utah	Rank	U.S.	Utah % of U.S. Average
1992	$52.32	8	$43.68	119.8%
1995	50.29	9	42.90	117.2%
2000	41.93	26	41.27	101.6%
2004	40.46	36	43.68	92.6%

The Foundation provides excellent analysis claiming this reduction in effort may be traced to four major tax policy changes in Utah.  The effort that used to go into education, now appears to go into “health, human services, corrections, and transportation infrastructure.”

The report concludes that “if Utah still exerted the funding effort that existed in 1995, when the state was the fifth highest in the nation, Utah would have had an additional $1,200 per pupil available in public education revenues in 2004.  That would have been an increase of $600 million or 20% above the actual funding for that year.  Finally, that would have raised Utah’s overall ranking [in education funding per pupil] from 51^st to 47^th.”

It appears more important in Utah to build roads than educate students.   If you doubt this, remember the recent special session where the Legislature reversed Governor Herbert’s veto of a bill that set aside money for transportation, while education funding sinks lower.

Speaking to the issue of our comparatively weak funding of education, another respondent to more previous email wrote me:  “I think it’s education malpractice that causes long-term, lifelong harm.  If it were the hospital and the hospital knew it was critical to have diagnostic tools (MRI, c-scan, pathology lab, etc.) to best treat and diagnose those with illnesses and the hospital said, ‘By the way, we have the funds, but we’d rather pave the parking lot, redo the furnishings in the doctor’s offices, and we also want to pay for the lifetime health insurance of any medical staff who works at this hospital,’ the hospital would be sued.”

Appallingly, the figures explain that not only is our per pupil expenditure low, but our effort is in serious decline.

Kim R. Burningham