School board seeks a 20% increase

The Legislature needs to cough up another half-billion dollars to keep programs for Utah's schoolchildren going, give teachers a nice pay raise and provide other programs to boost achievement — at least, that's what the State Board of Education thinks.

On Friday, it further solidified a more than $3 billion budget proposal, which includes an additional $516 million, or 20 percent increase to this year's budget. More than $220 million of that alone would go to raise the basic per-student funding formula, the WPU, by a whopping 10 percent.

The WPU typically sets the tone for what kind of a pay raise teachers can get.

The unprecedented budget request — still not yet fully finalized by the board — doesn't count cash to cover increased busing and energy costs. The state still is calculating those costs, which likely will be in the millions of dollars.

But the request already could be pie in the sky.

State Associate Superintendent Patrick Ogden, who oversees budgeting for the State Office of Education, surmises the state will have an extra $250 million to $300 million to play with in the coming budget year, plus close to $400 million to $500 million in one-time money.

The request seeks other money sources for the budget. More than $436 million would come from state money, $36 million in one-time state funds, $6 million from school trust funds and $37 million from local funds.

Still, the state board says its job is to highlight school needs, including the influx of some 15,000 new students expected next school year.

"We're here to look at education issues. We've got to make the best possible (projections) and not play legislative games," board member Randall Mackey said.

The budget includes big-ticket items: $50 million to improve teachers' skills, $30 million to put more computers in classrooms, $28 million to drop class size in language arts and math classes in hopes of boosting student achievement.

It also seeks $7.5 million for optional full-day kindergarten programs for students at risk of failing in school, a pet initiative of Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. that research shows narrows achievement gaps between the haves and have-nots.

But another $7.2 million item for a preschool readiness initiative, expected to come in a bill sponsored by schools budget chairman Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, is likely to get further discussion.