The Utah State Board of Education (USBE) met Monday, Sept. 16, 2024 and voted on a priority list for funding the Utah public school system. This list will be reviewed by the Governor; he has no power to change the list or direct the Legislature. THE LEGISLATURE HAS FINAL AUTHORITY FOR FUNDING DECISIONS. We hope legislators listen to education policy makers!
- WPU (basic school per pupil funding unit) INCREASE of 6%
- Critical USBE employee needs (in order to implement 2023 and 2024 legislation—are you familiar with the overwhelming “student safety” bill?)
- Paid professional hours (this allows teachers to be paid for PART of their many outside-of-class work hours)
- Grow your own educator pipeline (this funds the program allowing local schools to work with current employees and community members to gain teaching expertise and an eventual degree)
- Student information system (SIS) (Do you hear complaints from parents and legislators—“we can’t trust USBE data!??!” A single system or at minimum, support for locally-selected systems to feed accurately into the State system, will give taxpayers better data about student achievement and program participation.
- Educator incentives: National Board Certified Teachers. (This is a PROVEN program that improves teacher content strength and effectiveness)
- School safety needs assessment findings (Local schools are assessing their safety weaknesses. This funding will begin to help them address those weaknesses. THIS WILL NEVER BE ENOUGH FUNDING UNTIL THE COMMUNITY AND SCHOOL SYSTEMS ADDRESS ROOT PROBLEMS!
- Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts (BTS) and POPS—both of these programs provide art (in the broadest sense) programs in public schools. The Sorenson family has generously privately funded the arts program for decades. Now we need public funding.
- School lunch support—hungry children cannot learn! This funding would provide school lunches for all students who want them. Schools carry large IOU balances from students—because they believe no child should go hungry.
- Educator supplemental programs—this would increase funding for specific groups of paraprofessionals who work with students daily.
OTHER AREAS of requested funding:
- support for career and technical programs
- funding to increase the USBE audit staff—to effectively monitor the many public ed programs added by the Legislature
- funding for a teacher apprenticeship program in public schools
- UT’s average student attendance at school has decreased significantly (26%) in the past 5 years (even post-COVID). Funding would help the USBE support schools to approve attendance.
