January 12, 2017(Deseret News) - Stephen Kroes, the longtime president of the foundation, told me Wednesday he is retiring, effective in July. He will return to Sacramento, from whence he came to Utah in 2001, and will begin his own consulting practice. He is doing this for a number of reasons, including family considerations. One thing is certain. The foundation’s board of trustees must find someone just as capable to keep the 72-year-old institution a respected source for facts that … Continued
January 10, 2017(UtahPolicy.com) - The backers of a proposal to put an income tax hike on the 2018 ballot in order to raise money for Utah’s schools say they’re tired of waiting for lawmakers to act. “We would welcome legislators to do it. They can do it more surgically and do it in a better way than a ballot initiative,” says former Utah House Speaker Nolan Karras. “We’ve been working for the last four or five years on this, … Continued
January 08, 2017(Salt Lake Tribune) - Even that much money, Our Schools Now figures, falls short of the $1.2 billion a year that public education has lost over the past several years as the Legislature has fiddled with the state’s property and income tax structures. The group notes that, measured as a percentage of a state’s total personal income, Utah’s tax effort for schools has fallen from seventh in the nation to 37th.
January 05, 2017(UtahPolicy.com) - It will cost the state $100 million this coming year just to pay for the growth in the number of new students coming into public schools. In fact, it has been two steps forward, one step back in public school funding for a number of years, a new Utah Foundation report on school funding shows. The report shows that over the last 20 years, various tax changes/exemptions have actually DECREASED public school funding by 29 percent from … Continued
January 03, 2017(Salt Lake Tribune) - Herbert says he wants Utah schools to be the best in the nation, but that talk is torpedoed by classroom funding that is the absolute worst. He hopes Utah can grow out of last place, but acknowledges it will take years, attributing the problem to big families — not to the $1.2 billion that the Utah Foundation recently reported has been diverted from education by years of tax cutting. It’s so bad that the state’s … Continued
December 17, 2016(Davis Clipper) - Public education in Utah has lost millions of dollars over the past 20 years due to changes in tax rates and structure, according to a report by the Utah Foundation, a non-partisan public policy research group. So much has been lost, in fact, that it would take a $1.2 billion investment to bring it back to where it was in 1995, according to the report. To reach the national average in per-pupil spending, the foundation … Continued
December 14, 2016(Salt Lake Tribune) - “The initiative process, I hope, never drives the legislative process or what the governor does. I think it’s a weapon out there for those who think we’re not paying attention,” Hillyard said. “Personally, I agree with what [Gov. Gary Herbert] is trying to do and that is let the economic growth pay for education naturally. I personally think a tax increase of 7⁄8 percent would be a death knell and it would undo everything [former … Continued
December 11, 2016(Salt Lake Tribune) - A nurse will touch every person’s life at one time or another. This happens when a family member is sick, or when we have our own health problems. People are living longer than ever before. They are facing an increase in diseases and chronic health care needs. There is a serious shortage of health care providers, especially RNs, to care for such patients. The Utah Medical Education Council says that the nursing shortage consists of … Continued
December 09, 2016(Herald-Journal) - The history of education funding in Utah shows a consistent decreased effort since the 1990s. The Utah Foundation reports that since 1994, Utah has dropped from 7th in the nation to 37th in terms of education funding. During the past 20 years, K-12 revenue has decreased by nearly $12 per $1,000 of income. Back then, [Nolan] Karras said, the economy was robust and growing strong. The income tax was growing with the economy. The Utah … Continued
December 07, 2016(Salt Lake Tribune) - Third graders at Wasatch Peak Academy in North Salt Lake use colored shapes to learn fractions in a geometry class. A new report by the Utah Foundation says that charter schools receive less funding than school district schools, but charter advantages make it difficult to determine if the funding is inequitable.
December 07, 2016(Utah Political Capitol) - In past polls conducted the Utah Foundation air quality and the environment were treated as a single topic — but this year, when the two topics were separated, air quality rose from Utah’s 7th most important issue to the 2nd, just below health care and just above education. 87 percent of self-described liberals and 58 percent of similarly defined conservatives called it an “important issue.” Liberal voters were more than three times more likely than … Continued
December 01, 2016(UtahPolicy.com) - 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 – … Continued
December 01, 2016(Deseret News) - I really enjoyed a recent Utah Foundation’s report on how Utah’s tax policies since the mid-1990s have shortchanged Utah public schools. The bottom line is that since 1996 instead of raising taxes to cover increased costs of health care, social services, higher ed, roads, relocation of the prison, other infrastructure, economic expansion, etc., our Legislature has chosen to pay much of those cost increases by reducing funding for public education. What the report didn’t mention … Continued
November 30, 2016(Deseret News) - So, not to get all wonky on you (I know how you all love doing math), but here’s another number to consider — $2.9 billion. That’s how much more tax money it would take to raise the state from its current last place in per pupil expenditures for education to the national average. Are you up to it? That won’t get you to the top of the list, mind you. Doing so would take much … Continued
November 30, 2016(The Spectrum) - Utah has pumped some $400 million into public education since 2010, according to legislative analysts, and state legislators and Gov. Gary Herbert often cite education as their top priority. But most of the new money has gone to fund increases in student enrollment and inflation. An analysis published Monday by the Utah Foundation, a nonpartisan research group, suggested the state has dramatically cut its investment in education over the past 20 years. In 1995 Utah … Continued
November 30, 2016(Politico) - TAKING OFF A CHUNK: Utah public schools have lost about $1.2 billion worth of funding over the past 20 years because of the state’s tax policy choices, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. The nonpartisan Utah Foundation reported that around 2.8 percent of taxpayer income in the state went to schools in 2014, down from 3.9 percent in 1995. One of the culprits: a 1996 constitutional amendment that allowed income tax revenue to be shifted … Continued
November 30, 2016(Deseret News) - Nolan Karras, former Republican speaker of the Utah House and another member of the Our Schools Now steering committee, said at Tuesday’s presentation that recent increases in education funding have been mostly absorbed by inflation and the financial demand associated with a growing number of students. Utah Foundation, a research group cited by the campaign, has concluded that about $110 million has been added to the K-12 education budget annually over the past five years. … Continued
November 30, 2016(Salt Lake Tribune) - A recent UtahPolicy.com poll found broad support — 67 percent — among voters for an income tax increase to fund schools. The poll, conducted by Dan Jones and Associates, included 812 Utahns and had a margin of error of 3.43 percent. Additional results from that poll showed 30 percent of Utahns responding that they, personally, pay too little in income taxes. Utah’s income tax rate was lowered from 7 percent to 5 percent in 2007. … Continued
November 29, 2016(Utah Political Capitol) - Two decades of declining investment in Utah’s K-12 education has lead to a $1.2 billion reduction in available funds, according to a new report released Monday by the Utah Foundation – a non-partisan, Salt Lake City-based think tank. The report, entitled “Getting By with Less: Two Decades of K-12 Education Revenue and Spending,” reaffirms the fact that the beehive state has the lowest per-pupil spending in the nation due in part to Utah’s young population. … Continued
November 29, 2016(Washington Times) - A new report by the Utah Foundation has fond that changes to Utah’s tax policy have cost public schools $1.2 billion annually. The Salt Lake Tribune reports (http://bit.ly/2fyvT3y ) that according to the report, released Monday, the amount of school-supporting taxes Utah residents paid for each $1,000 of personal income fell from $39 to $28 between 1995 and 2014. Utah Foundation researchers looked at changes to Utah’s tax code like the Truth in Taxation process … Continued
November 29, 2016(New West) - Finally, down in Utah, according to the Salt Lake Tribune, two decades of Utah tax policy has cost the state’s public school system $1.2 billion, a surprising deficit considering that lawmakers have approved millions of dollars to the education budget over the years. But as Utah Foundation research director Shawn Teigen, those increases are chewed up by inflation and enrollment growth: “Those big increases, on average, have been basically whittled away to about $22 million … Continued
November 29, 2016(KSL Newsradio) - The Utah Foundation says income and property tax collection and allocation means Utah’s funding effort is lower now. (w/audio link)
November 29, 2016(Utah Public Radio) - A new report by the Utah Foundation has found that changes to Utah’s tax policy have cost public schools $1.2 billion annually. According to the report, the amount of school-supporting taxes Utah residents paid for each $1,000 of personal income fell from $39 to $28 between 1995 and 2014. “Tuition is having to cover more and more of the cost,” said Utah Foundation Research Director Shawn Teigen. “Tuition used to cover about a quarter and … Continued
November 29, 2016(Salt Lake Tribune) - A report released Monday by the Utah Foundation details how the additional money sought by recent governors, and appropriated by successive sessions of the Legislature, may sound like a lot. It amounts to about $100 million a year. But, the Foundation calculates, the rapid growth in the number of students and the growth in the cost of educating each one of them rapidly eats up all but some $22 million of each year’s additional funding. … Continued
November 28, 2016(UtahPolicy.com) - Changes to Utah’s tax rates and structure as well as the allocation of revenue dedicated to public schools has meant a decline in funding effort for K-12 education in Utah. A new report released today by Utah Foundation, an independent, non-partisan public policy research group, shows the funding effort – defined as dollars spend for K-12 education per $1,000 of personal income – has dropped from 7th place in the nation in 1995 to 37th place among the … Continued
