The question is, what to do? If you listen to professional educators, the answer is always “give us more money and trust us to spend it.” Here’s a quote from Kim Burningham:

State Board of Education Chairman Kim Burningham believes the governor has plans for generating future education funding beyond cutting other state departments. “I know that if she can find money, she will,” said Burningham, one of Walker’s colleagues when she served in the Legislature in the 1980s.

“There are some people opposed to any tax increase. But there are other people who feel it’s mandatory to provide money for education,” he said. “We’re already the lowest in the nation by a long ways in per-pupil funding. If we don’t get a significant increase, we just fall farther and farther behind. I don’t see how we can look to the future and not increase our support.”

From The Salt Lake Tribune | Walker sets her sights on tax overhaul
Referenced Tue Dec 02 2003 00:02:35 GMT-0700

Every time the issue of public schools comes up, someone trots out the “we’re last in the nation in per-pupil funding” argument. The obvious question that should follow that statement is: “How does that translate into student education?” The fact is that Utah students are not dead last in the nation in the education they receive and some of the states that spend a lot more than we do educate students much more poorly. We’re not in any kind of race to see which state can spend the most money per pupil.

Another issue that bears some examination is charter schools. I have to admit to some bias here. Three of my children have or are attending a charter school. The facts are very simple: charter schools educate students more cheaply than traditional publics schools and in many cases they do a better job. To be fair, they have more parental involvement and that makes a huge difference. But even so, I think there are lessons there that we can benefit from.

Last year, the Governor asked a team of business people to look at Utah’s public schools and come up with recommendations on how to solve the problem. I think that he was hoping that they’d conclude that we needed to raise taxes to pay for public education and form a vanguard group in leading the charge. They didn’t. They came up with the usual kinds of suggestions that you’d expect about efficiency and doing away with non-education related programs.

I believe we need a strong public education system and I’m not against paying for it. The fact is, we probably ought not be dead last in per-pupil funding and a hundred thousand additional school children aren’t going to help that equation. Just do the math. Still, I think we need more than a tax hike. We need real education reform and some new thinking. I’m not interested in simple paying more taxes for more of the same.