Ed funds fight brewing

Does Utah need a constitutional amendment to make sure public schools have enough money?

A State Board of Education committee wonders.

A possible amendment, public referendum, freezing the statewide property tax, even a funding adequacy lawsuit were among ideas bantered about Thursday by the board's finance committee.

The committee is troubled by a recent Utah Foundation report that the state's effort to pay for public schools is dropping at a time when revenues are spiking, a wave of new students is coming and Utah remains in the nation's cellar in the amount of money it gives to educate each student.

The board wants to come up with ways to reverse the trend.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Patti Harrington said lawyers are examining possible initiatives. Board members also discussed commissioning — perhaps with school group donations — an independent study to quantify school funding adequacy.

The board, like other education groups, is known to gripe about Utah's school funding situation. But the fight-back talk is unprecedented.

"There come right times to do something, and it seems to me the Utah Foundation's report at this time gives us a moment stronger than other moments for making this appeal," board chairman Kim Burningham said. "Now's the time to act. I think there's some urgency."

Utah's per-student funding has been lowest in the nation at least since 1991, Education Commission of the States data shows.

The matter for years has been chalked up to Utah's so-called education funding paradox. Basically, Utah has a lot of children — its birthrate is the nation's highest — but not a lot of taxpayers to shoulder the cost of their education, though the state's effort to fund schools was among the nation's highest.

But the Utah Foundation's recent "Paradox Lost" report found the state's effort has dropped since the 1990s to the national average or below. Cited causes include exemptions and policy changes that froze the amount of money the basic property tax brings in every year, and a 1996 constitutional amendment opening income tax revenues, once reserved solely for public schools, to colleges and universities.

The board wants Utah's effort restored. The Utah Foundation has asked for the board's suggestions — as well as those from other interest groups — on how to do it. The board also wants to offer recommendations to the governor.