As has been the case with every other budget he has proposed in his seven years as governor of Utah, Gary Herbert Wednesday rightly moved to put our money where his mouth is and recommended a significant increase in the amount the state spends on public education.
As Herbert has often said over the years, when it comes to education, it’s not all about the money, but it is some about the money. Having that money, or having more money, does not guarantee success. But lacking adequate resources does, in the case of all too many students and schools, guarantee failure.
The state not only anticipates an additional 7,700 students in its K-12 classrooms next year, it also has to deal with a world in which more and more of those students are poor, rootless or, in even the most affluent of households, distracted by electronics and lacking the family and emotional support Utahns used to take for granted.
Not only that, but those schools exist in a world where globalization, rapidly changing technology and other economic and cultural factors mean that our students have to learn more, and learn it faster, than was conceivable even a generation ago.
Into that insatiable maw, Herbert’s budget would pour an additional $275 million, or almost three-quarters of all the increase expected in the state’s income next fiscal year. It’s a spending plan that places some welcome emphasis on technical and vocational education and also allows local school boards maximum leeway to allocate money toward areas they feel have the most need.
The total to be spent on schooling would, if the Legislature approves the governor’s plan, climb to cool $9 billion. That certainly sounds like a lot of money. But, in a state that is not only growing rapidly but continues to have a population that skews young, it would be difficult to argue that it is too much.
That is why Herbert expresses interest in, if not yet total support for, the Our Schools Now initiative. That’s the plan from a squad of some of Utah’s top business leaders to go to the voters for hikes in the state’s sales and income tax rates to boost state education spending by even more.
Having that effort on the table, Herbert told The Tribune’s Editorial Board Wednesday, will be useful in moving the conversation along toward a time when the state does an even better job, in one way or another, of supporting public education.
Other highlights of the governor’s plan includes allowing the Utah Transportation Commission to spend some of its funds on public transit, rather than always having it go to highways, and increases in spending for health care, public safety and addiction treatment, needs put into high relief by the homelessness crisis in Salt Lake City.
It is a good plan with the proper priorities set and a good starting point for the 2018 Legislative session, which begins next month.
