This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

While Utah's senators and representatives are doing their thing during this year's legislative session, I continue doing mine. Theirs is a bit like Sisyphus pushing his rock uphill in Hades. Mine is a bit more like worrying about those in the way of the rock since Sisyphus can't see ahead.

Our legislators need to be a bit more like those in Vermont, a tiny state with way under a million in population but with an eye out for their kids anyway. Squashing the kids isn't in the playbook for legislators in Vermont. Let me offer a few facts and some figures.

Public education in the Granite State ranks way up the list of our 50 states in just about every way despite a relatively puny tax base. Why? They've decided, those Vermonters, to fund K-12 handsomely by not using the playbook of the fiscally conservative. While population in Vermont was 624,594 last year, Utah's was a whopping 3,051,217. While household income in Vermont was $59,494 in 2015, Utah's was $66,250. Probably most important, the effective tax rate in Vermont currently tops out at over 8 percent; Utah's flat rate at 5 percent.

Per-pupil funding on K-12 in Vermont? $16,377 in 2013. In Utah? $6,555 that year.

For those among you who jump up and say, "Unfair comparison!," I have some news. There's a lot more. And it involves fewer and fewer of the best going into teaching in the Beehive State.

Ron W. Smith

Providence