For Utah schools, Tim said the real problem is that they are having to use local funds to make up for federal money that never materialized. Many of Utah's poorest schools, he said, are now facing the fact that they will be the ones footing the bill to fulfill the mandates of the No Child Left Behind Legislation.

"These schools don't have enough money for their own programs and now they have to do all these mandates. It's a very bad situation," he said.

Susan Veatch, a sixth-grade teacher at Douglas T. Orchard Elementary in West Valley, hosted a discussion group this week because she said she is tired of seeing her students miss out on newer books, safer buildings and less-crowded classrooms because the government won't fund its programs.

"The main thrust of it is that it's time to hold government responsible for the proper funding for all these programs they've been mandating," Veatch said. "It's time to say enough is enough; it's time to start paying for it."

But Utah Education Association President Pat Rusk said the problem is that many elected officials simply don't want to shell out more money for education in tight economic times. The error in that thinking, Rusk said, is that education may be the one thing that could save the economy.

For the past two weeks, Rusk has been touring Utah schools to tell teachers and parents that investing in education will help improve the economy. A report commissioned by the association shows that a better education system will actually increase quality of life, raise land values, attract new business and create jobs.

"Dollar for dollar, investing in education will create more jobs than could any other industry," Rusk said.

Rusk added that the research shows that for every 10 percent increase in education funding, 1.5 percent of the state's citizens will be lifted out of poverty.

But the current pattern of education budgets shows that many state leaders are unwilling to invest in education, Rusk said. In 1994, Utah was fifth in the nation for the percent of its total budget spent on education. In 2000, Utah dropped to 35th.

"The trend is here, you can see we're falling behind," she said.

Utah has also fallen behind with some of the nation's largest class sizes and the nation's lowest amount of per-pupil funding, Rusk said.

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E-mail: estewart@desnews.com