When the question of K-12 spending comes up in public policy circles, someone is bound to mention: “We spend the least per student in the nation.”
Though ranking last may induce shame, the real issue is not how much we spend on schools. Rather, it’s how well the schools perform.
Utah Foundation launched a series of reports on K-12 spending nearly two years ago, exploring issues ranging from funding for students at risk of academic failure to teacher compensation. We learned a lot along the way, which has already helped to inform public policy decisions.
Most recently, we went to the core issue: looking at the return on our K-12 investments. The full analysis is in our new report, “Making the Grade? K-12 Outcomes and Spending in Utah.”
Before getting to the findings, take a moment to appreciate that we do have lean school systems here in Utah. Some of the factors driving down spending are large districts, the second lowest per-pupil administrative costs in the nation and, for better or worse, nearly the largest class sizes in the nation. So while we spend the least on K-12 operations per pupil, we also have a relatively efficient collection of districts.
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