But Stephen Kroes, president of the Utah Foundation, said the last two decades have racked up corresponding drops in Utah’s education performance and the state’s funding “effort” — the proportion of personal income dedicated to public schools.
In the mid-1990s, Kroes said, Utah ranked in the Top 10 for school funding efforts and the Top 15 for performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
But the state has dropped by both measures to the middle of the pack as Utah schools have become more diverse and funding has failed to keep pace with income growth as lawmakers cut and flattened taxes in 2007 and funneled income taxes to other programs.
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