I believe we should be more aggressive in attracting private dollars to public schools. In Salt Lake City, for example, each school raises about $50,000 each year in additional funding. Clubs, school community councils, PTA groups, businesses and charitable endowments could help in this endeavor. Applying successful higher education fund-raising methods to public education would enhance this effort.

Arizona is a good example of where private sector fund-raising has greatly benefited public education. We must also look constantly at finding greater efficiencies in the administration of education. Utah already has one of the best administrator-to-student ratios in the nation, but I believe more can be done. For example, combine the purchasing power and other non-teaching functions of education while at the same time pushing education decision-making to the very lowest level — parents, teachers and principals. We must also ensure that our school trust lands are properly administered and invested so that in the future these lands may provide greater support to our schools. I support the goals of our current trust land managers, which include emphasizing greater mineral development, ensuring receipt of fair market value in sales and leases, and working to exchange lands subject to federal development restrictions with lands that have greater economic potential. Finally, and perhaps most potentially significant, Utah should pursue the APPLE Initiative, which seeks to create a Western states trust fund for public education as compensation for our federally owned lands.

Part 2. In the context of overall tax reform, I believe raising more revenue locally for schools and local government should be considered. Raising taxes locally for schools may raise funding equalization issues. However, I do not support raising taxes overall. Where taxes are increased in one area, they should be lowered in one or more other areas to compensate. I believe that government is best when it governs closest to the people because it is more immediately responsive to shifting or changing community demands for services. It also tends to be more efficient and less wasteful. We should be leaving most decisions, including raising revenue, up to local governments rather than handing down unfunded or under-funded mandates from the state level.

Part 3. As mentioned above, I believe we have a number of options.

10. The state gasoline tax has not been raised since 1997, when it went up to help pay for reconstruction of I-15 in Salt Lake County. When tax revenues dropped off in the early 2000s, lawmakers and the former governor took sales tax revenue out of roads and bonded. How do we pay for more road repairs now, including rebuilding I-80 on the east side of Salt Lake County?