Economy Drags School Funding Down

Education, and the lack of funding for it. No concern is more expressed as I knock doors.

So, I decided to call the state, see just how severe a crisis we have.

The man on the other end of the line didn't unload, cursing the Legislature for shorting the schools. Not at all. Rather, he said both the governor and Legislature are helping what they can.

Todd Hauber, associate superintendent for the Utah State Office of Education, tied the problem to the economy. With much of the funding coming from income tax, more funds will be hard to come by until the economy turns around.

I asked him how bad off schools are, and again he spoke of the economy, and whether it would recover. How about we set the economy aside, and you just tell me how bad schools are hurting, I said.

Well, he replied, schools have always scrambled to get their share of the money, but now it has reached a point where they need everything they can get just to cover operations, just to keep going.

I told him the doors I am knocking are telling me this is the first year the state has not funded growth. "You could argue growth wasn't funded," he replied, acknowledging no new money to cover the expanding number of students. But, he said ways have been found to fund the growth with existing money.

Those are not fortunate ways, though. Social security and retirement funds were raided, and daily bus services slashed.

"We've gone through a couple of very difficult years and I don't see recovery taking place," he said, again tying the problem to the sour economy.

Will educators ask for money to match growth next year? "At this point, after two years . . . it actually needs to be funded," he said.

And now, I close my blog with what I should have opened with. Perhaps I will learn more about this and blog anew on it in the future.

Depending on how you measure it, Utah is not stingy on funding. Oh, yes, it is true the state, year after year, ranks right at the bottom in per pupil spending. But . . . it doesn't rank even near the bottom in spending as a percentage of total state outlays.

"It is higher than other states," Hauber said. He didn't have the exact figure at his fingertips, but suggested 46 to 50 percent of the state budget goes to education.