So how to get that started?
— First, you wait until after the November 2016 election to say or do anything in public. You don’t want your effort harmed by gubernatorial or legislative candidates afraid of angering voters.
Then get a well-respected, independent group to take a look at long-term Utah education funding.
An unbiased report would provide the critical facts that your signature-gathering/ballot PR effort would rely on.
That report came on Monday – one day ahead of the OSN public press conference.
The Utah Foundation report can be found here.
And it is bleak – as the OSN folks knew it would be since these numbers have generally been known (or guessed at) for some time.
Utah public schools are getting $1.2 billion LESS annually today than if lawmakers hadn’t given a myriad of income tax, property tax and special interest tax breaks over the last 20 years – which directly or indirectly harmed public school funding.
(While not naming him directly, the foundation report also shoots down Herbert’s public school claim to fame: That he’s marshaled $1.8 billion in new money toward schools in the last five years. He has, but inflation and public school student growth – 10,000 new kids a year – has eaten it up, leaving only an average of $22 million in new cash each academic year. A mere pittance.)
