Should Utah score high marks for its handling of education dollars -- or find itself with a failing grade?

The answer to that question separated Republican Gov. Gary Herbert and Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon, a Democrat, on Thursday as the two candidates for Utah's highest political office met face-to-face for the first time this season to deliver opposing campaign pitches.

Despite a bruising budget year, Herbert says the state has largely protected public education from budget cuts.

"We have been able to hold the line on education funding," he told a gathering of Utah Foundation donors in downtown Salt Lake City. "And we've been able to do it without impacting the economy by having some kind of significant tax increase."

While the governor concedes that school coffers have been cut in recent years, Herbert insists that education is receiving hundreds of millions more today than when he took office alongside then-Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. in 2005. That funding, he says, has grown at a faster rate than Utah's population.

But Corroon argues that the state isn't doing enough. The mayor says class sizes are up, graduation rates are down and school funding isn't getting the priority it deserves.

"Utahns will not tolerate, and our children cannot afford, any further declines in our education system."

Corroon's comments came moments before the Utah Foundation, a nonpartisan economic think tank, released a new poll showing that Utahns consider kindergarten-through-12th-grade education among the top three issues facing the state. The poll ranked jobs and the economy first and government spending second.

While most people favored a decline in overall state spending -- based on a survey of 604 registered voters -- respondents also argued for a boost in school funding.

Corroon said he would put a renewed emphasis on education, which he described as key to economic recovery.

"At some point we need to make sure we are investing in the critical services that will lead our state to economic prosperity," he said. "We cannot tax our way to economic prosperity. But we cannot cut our way to economic prosperity. We need a balanced approach that will ensure that Utah's best days are ahead of us."

But in talking about education, the gubernatorial candidates also revealed a philosophical difference about taxation. Herbert touted his administration's ability to weather the economic downturn without higher taxes. Corroon suggested that he would be more inclined to raise taxes to preserve certain government services.

jstettler@sltrib.com