Ogden believes fully sharing the funds with colleges "may work to public education's benefit." Then again, potential tax cuts could stand to slow revenue growth.

"If anything, revenue that supports higher education and public education should increase ... there's been public demand (for it) for years," State Superintendent of Public Instruction Patti Harrington said. "The potential for tax cuts to make public education revenue stagnant is not a happy scenario."

Pat Rusk, president of the 18,000-member Utah Education Association, says the current funding trend is "starving our public school system."

"And I do believe we have legislators who would be happy to not have a public education system at all, who really do believe we would be better off if our public schools were privatized," Rusk said. "So if you want public schools to not perform well ... then continue the kind of trend that you see."

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