From Deseret News archives:
School funding in the spotlight
Utah is ranked last again in spending on students
"I do hope this gets us above last place, but we'll see," Dudley said.
Education office public-relations specialist Mark Peterson is not optimistic.
"I think it's very, very, very unlikely," Peterson said.
He said it would take an additional increase of about $300 million for Utah to move out of last place. Moreover, some of the $216.6 million approved by the Legislature will go to teacher raises and will not be counted as per-pupil spending.
Utah spent $5,257 per student in 2005, nearly $1,000 less than Arizona, which ranked second-to-last, according to the report. Idaho, Mississippi and Oklahoma rounded out the bottom five. The 10 states with the lowest per-pupil spending were all in the West or the South.
New York led the nation in spending with $14,119 spent per student, followed by New Jersey, with $13,800. The District of Columbia, Vermont and Connecticut were also in the top five. Seven of the top 10 per-pupil spending states were in the Northeast.
The national average was $8,701 per student, up from $8,287 in 2004 — an increase of 5 percent.
Spending in the nation's public schools increased from $472 billion in 2004 to $497 billion in 2005. Of these expenditures, the largest portion — $258 billion — was spent on instruction. That was followed by $146 billion spent on support services, such as transportation and administration.
Of all money the nation's public schools received, 47 percent came from state governments, 44 percent came from local sources and 9 percent came from the federal government.
School construction spending amounted to $42 billion nationwide in 2005. Nearly one-third of that construction spending occurred in California and Texas, which spent a combined $13 billion.
E-mail: dfelix@desnews.com
