PRESS RELEASE

September 27, 2002

Contact: Stephen Kroes, Executive Director
(801) 288-1838, ext. 122
(801) 673-6789 (mobile - available this weekend)
steve@utahfoundation.org

UTAH SCHOOLS FACE DAUNTING CHALLENGES IN THIS DECADE

Utah Foundation has released its research report on the challenges that Utah's public schools will face in the next ten years. This report is a compilation of facts and statistics gathered during Utah Foundation's work with the Employers Education Coalition. The coalition asked Utah Foundation to provide independent, unbiased information on the status of Utah public schools and the challenges coming in this decade. The report is entitled "Utah at the Crossroads: Challenges for K-12 Education in the Coming Ten Years." The report should accompany this release; if not, it is available at http://www.utahfoundation.org/reports.html.

Key highlights of this report are:

• Utahns pay a high tax burden and a large share of tax revenues are dedicated to education. Despite the high funding effort for education, per-pupil funding is the lowest in the nation and class sizes are the largest.
   
• Utah students perform at an average level on standardized tests, but most Utah racial groups, including white students, are scoring below average compared to their racial group nationally.
   
• The 1990s brought unusually favorable conditions for public education, allowing increased per-pupil funding and lower class sizes. These conditions will not be repeated in this decade.
   
• The proportion of state spending dedicated to K-12 education fell in recent years, as increased funds were directed to capital projects.
   
• If the economy grows slowly, education funding will not be able to keep up with enrollment growth.
   
• The new No Child Left Behind law at the federal level will require increased effort and changes to Utah's education system.

Stephen Kroes, Executive Director of Utah Foundation said, "Together with a projected boom of 70,000 to 100,000 new public school students within ten years, these facts indicate a public education system in need of serious attention if our students are to succeed. It will be difficult to maintain the existing quality of Utah's public schools with all of these pressures on the system. Improving the quality of education will be even more arduous."

The fiscal stresses expected from slower economic growth will leave policymakers with few new resources to divide among many more students. This is occurring at a time when federal policy requires that student achievement be more diligently pursued. The federal "No Child Left Behind" law requires that all students perform at certain achievement levels and that all student sub-groups show adequate progress. Utah Foundation Research Analyst Sara Sanchez stated, "A preliminary look at Utah's test scores disaggregated by race and income status shows that Utah's schools will face difficulty in meeting these requirements."

Utah Foundation is a nonprofit, non-advocacy research organization. Our mission is to encourage informed public policy making and to serve as Utah's trusted source for independent, objective research on crucial public policy issues.