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For years, parents, educators and policymakers have complained that Utah has the lowest spending per student in the nation. But some state education leaders want the public - and lawmakers - to see that in a different way. 'Utah has the most efficient school system in the country,' said state Superintendent Larry Shumway after a recent visit to Utah by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. 'We're getting our job done in Utah with 22 percent less than any other state. We need to continue to try to be efficient and then we need to look at places we can make targeted investments to improve our results.' Shumway and other education leaders want to change the conversation about school funding to emphasize what he's calling 'the Utah education miracle.'

The miracle, he says, is that Utah students tend to score at or above national averages on a number of academic measures despite the lowest per pupil funding in the nation. Education leaders hope the new message, which they're delivering widely, will show lawmakers and others that Utah schools are worthy of further investment. 'If we look at all the facts, the reality is that we're an incredibly efficient system where if you put money in you get great returns,' said Shum­way, who will likely speak about it during his annu­al State of Education speech Wednesday. Is there a positive?

But for many Utahns, it's difficult to see anything positive about Utah's low per-pupil spending. Utah spent $5,765 per student in 2007-08 compared with a national average of $10,259, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, partly because of Utah's high proportion of chil­dren to adults and because the state contains so much feder­ally owned land. 'I like having a positive message about saying, 'Look, we're doing well, and look at how much better we could do if we had more resourc­­es,' but it's a little disingenu­ous to frame it that way in my view,' said Rep. Carol Spack­man Moss, D-Holladay. Parent Lori Maness, whose two children go to Indian Hills Elementary School in Salt Lake City, said there's no getting around the effects of low per-student spending. 'Saying it's most efficient makes it sound like we're some sort of leader and the others should be following you,' Maness said. 'That's not the best message to be send­ing to other states. I don't know how efficient it is when some classes have up to 40 kids in them.' Utah had the highest stu­dent- teacher ratio in the na­tion in 2OO8-O9. And some wonder wheth­er Utah's efficiency will hold as the state becomes more di­verse. Apples to apples » Com­pared with the nation as a whole, Utah students tend to score at or above average on a number of academic measures. But compared with only states with similar ethnic makeups, parental education levels and poverty rates, Utah students most often rank last on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, accord­ing to a Utah Foundation re­port released this week. Each of those demographic ally sim­ilar states spends far more per student than Utah. 'We have been efficient be­cause of who we are, not nec­essarily what we do,' said Mike Kelley, a spokesman for the Utah Education Associa­tion. He said as Utah becomes more socioeconomically di­verse 'we will no longer be able to continue to provide education on the cheap.' Shumway said he recog­nizes there are places Utah must continue to invest with­in education, and he's advo­cating for additional strategic investments. 'I don't want to go to the Legislature and say we just need to increase our cost per student,' Shumway said. 'I want to go and say we need to make certain strategic investments that will increase our value-added.' He said in the past, education advocates have gone to the Legislature saying Utah has the lowest per-pu­pil spending in the country and needs to spend more cash. That, he said, has led to certain unhelpful respons­es from lawmakers: that no amount of money will be enough to solve all of educa­tion's problems; that throw­ing money at schools is not the answer; and/or that the real problem is waste within the system. '[Few] legislators and few citizens, I find, respond well when I say, 'We just need to spend more on education,'' Shumway said. 'If you recog­nize that you have a system that is incredibly successful... then we become a system wor­thy of investment.' More bang for the buck » A 2OO7 U.S. Chamber of Commerce education report ranked Utah first in the na­tion on return on investment. Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, who co-chairs the Education Interim Committee, said he believes Shumway's new message 'enhanced his credibility with policymakers.' Stephenson said quality edu­cation is not just about money. 'I think Dr. Shumway's re­marks communicate to leg­islators that we ought to rec­ognize the job that is being done with scarce resources, and that Dr. Shumway and his office can be trusted in being authentic with the data and genuine with their request for funding,' Stephenson said. Dave Thomas, a state school board member, said strategic investments could include putting money toward continuing extended-day kindergarten; computer-adaptive testing to help teachers better gauge where students stand academically; and support for science, technology, engineer­ing and math education. 'Don't spend money for the sake of spending money,' Thomas said. 'Spend it on very targeted things where we think we can improve more and do more.' Michael McDonough, a special education teacher at Woodstock Elementary in Murray and vice president of the Granite Education Asso­ciation, said he agrees that Utah's education system is efficient. He said the system could generate even better re­sults with more funding. 'I think that with the large, large class sizes that we have, that our results, they can't be competitive with everyone else,' McDonough said. 'Our good results can't last forever.' Utah: Last in spending, tops in efficiency? According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Utah spent $5,765 per student in 2OO8, less than any other state. Some state education leaders say that ranking, coupled with Utah's academic standings, make Utah schools the most efficient in the country.