Reader comments
Costs for schools disputed

I wish our legislators would stop criticizing our Utah public schools.

AMEN!

Who keeps electing these guys that do nothing but blast education in their own state?

Just another attempt by Madsen to discredit public schools. What was the message he was sending to his constituents by giving them ALEC propaganda that has nothing to do with Utah school funding? He apparently assumes they're too stupid to know what he's doing.

Madsen is another one that needs to go away, we need legislators who tell the truth.

Crunch the numbers in this article, more than 28% of Alpine's budget is not in the classroom, that is less than 25% cited my Madsen.

Great math and great article!

According to the US Department of Education's definition of administrative costs, Alpine district is spending 28% plus on administration according to this article.

If you do the math, the district actually spends 29% on administrative works. This is the problem with UT schools and one of the reasons we spend so little per student. TOO MANY DISTRICTS...less districts equal less spent on administrators and more spent on students. We could cut down on the school districts if we just put in people who know how to efficiently run something!!! Heck, even if we cut down on the districts, we would also be able to pay the teachers better which would equal better teachers. Utah has some great teachers right now, but too many good ones leave the state for better pay.
Solution - either we need fewer school districts or the administrators need to take major pay cuts!!!

I don't understand what those posting on this message board have against Sen. Madsen. What they call criticizing public schools is simply discussing and debating the facts of public education in Utah today.

Further, Sen. Madsen didn't even do anything beyond stating a fact. It seems to me that it's the sensitivity of those posting that lead them to interpret that fact as a criticism of public education, despite whatever Sen. Madsen actually said.

The fact is that a lot of money going to public schools ends up going to pay for administration of those schools. It's simply a reality. Unless you just don't want discussion of how our public schools work to occur, you should be praising Sen. Madsen, not railing on him, for bringing this fact up publicly.

If you don't think that reality merits changing how public schools work, than make your argument. If you do think it merits change, than make that argument. Whatever you do, be a productive citizen and do more than just complain that our legislators are discussing educational realities in Utah, which is really what we elected them to do.

Peel away at administration and put the funds into online classs which would also cut need for buildings.

Hey, I am no school administrator. The problem is not the administrators and its not the teachers. Its the fact we are dead last in education spending for the 50th year in a row. It would take 2 Billion dollars to move from 50th to 49th.

As someone who is leaving this state to seek out better schools for my kids- it comes down to funding. So we have a lot of kids in our state. WE CAN'T keep ignoring the problem... Let's find solutions!!! We can find other avenues that don't include the word taxes. THE PROBLEM IS FUNDING!!!! Someone needs to step up and give us some alternative solutions for funding- lets get creative.