Reader comments
Utah's education paradox

It matters little how much we spend of our residents' income if we're not using it correctly. If we are to compete in a global economy, we need to spend less on sports of all types and spend more on educating students on how to compete against their competitors in China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc. The coming generation could be the firs to see their standard of living drop if our schools don't get it right. The era of the the good-time Charley and the "Hyphen-American Studies" has to end if our students want to survive at a standard of living anywhere near where they are now.

Stop spending money educating Illegal Aliens

How about encouraging people to have smaller families? We'd then have more money to spend educating fewer kids. Simple, no?

You can't measure the quality of education simply by the amount of money spent per student. For one thing, Utah has a lower cost of living than, say, California -- so a teacher can afford to live on a smaller salary than it takes to attract a teacher in a California school.

Would anyone honestly want to pull her kid out of the Alpine school district and put him in a Los Angeles Unified school just because the LAUSD spends so much more per student?

Frankly, it shouldn't cost that much to educate a primary student. High per-student expenditures come from pressure to Do Somthing about low student achievement -- which has far more to do with demographic and cultural factors than anything else. You can throw all the money you can appropriate at a student from a culture that's apathetic about education, and you'll see a marginal improvement at best.

er...that should be "Do SomEthing." Obviously my ninth-grade typing class was woefully underfunded.

Anonymous... How do you propose we, "Encourage people to have smaller families"?

Put government restrictions on family size? Get rid of those bad religious people who belive it is part of their purpose on earth to replinish the earth? or Just use social pressure? What's your plan?

I think a better solution is to encourage Utahns to make more money (especially large families).

Recent studies show that low income families tend to have more children. We need to try to turn that trend around. I hope we can do that by using the positive side of the equation (increase economic opportunity for Utahns) instead of the negative side of the equation (Restrict family size).

Fifty one companies are given start up money to create a complicated product. Of the fifty one companies one is given less than all the rest. This company receives $3500 less per product than the average of the other companies. Even the company next to the bottom is given $1000 more per product than company #51. Company #51 also has 30 percent fewer employees to produce these products but is given no more materials to get the job done.

Money may not be the only answer to solving the problems facing education in Utah but company #51 is certainly going to be struggling compared to even company #50.

Which company is going to be able to attract the best and brightest employees? Employees working for company #51 have to make almost twice the number of products as company #1 while being paid salaries below thirty eight of the other companies.

Utah's tax revenues per $1,000 of personal income is a measure of
�funding effort� or how heavily we are willing to tax ourselves to
pay for public education. In this measure, Utah ranks 27th, or just
below the national average. Utah needs to face this fact and reverse this trend. Out children deserve more than company #51 can provide.

Not to worry about the low teacher pay in Utah not attracting teachers from other states and professions. Several Utah school districts, with the help of Gov. Huntsman were able to fill the elementary teacher shortfall this year with teachers recruited from Mexico. Since Mexico doesn't provide much education for its underclass citizens, these teachers won't be missed. I am sure that with a little training these teachers will be able to pass on U.S. cultural values to these young children. As this program expands, the state should be able to continue to suppress teacher wages.

Since Utah spends about $7,500 per pupil (distributed to schools based on monthly attendance), a class with 30 students should receive $215,000 per year in financial support. If you were given that much money, you could easily lease a classroom and furniture (including boks, utilities and computers) for 9 months, and pay a hefty salary to the teacher, including medical and retirement benefits. So where does all the rest of the money go? We need not be surprised that a non-profit parochial school can operate on less money per pupil and still produce high quality education. At the same time, a high priced private school charging $10,000 tuition per year is priced less than 50% higher than the public schools. Then there is the fact that universities in Utah can educate most college students for far less than $7,500 per year. Clearly, the fact that other state education establishments are figuring out ways to burn up even more money than Utah does is not a justification for Utah to waste even more money. Utahns should be looking for ways to (1) increase educational funding without raising taxes and (2) get more educational benefits per public dollar spent. Vouchers to parents, which require them to donate the majority of costs, gets parents to inject their own funds into education, and it relieves the State of paying the full cost of edeucation of their child, increasing net funds available for the remaining students.

The right to education does not belong to "public schools" but to children. Vouchers can provide more education per taxpayer dollar.

I government buy explained something to me.

You can go buy pencils anywhere. The government by law must request bids. Out of the bids minority owned businesses if first call. There must by proof that this vendor is in compliance with ADA and equal employment statutes. It has to be a certified "drug free" vendor that has to pay an outside auditor to establish is fact. Someone must test the paint for toxins like lead. The pencils can be made from endangered wood. The graphite must comply to an ISO spec. The pencils must be shipped in cartons make with recycled material.

Why does it cost the government more to buy pencils?