Utah Schools Superintendent Larry Shumway calls education an "investment." And he's right.

Money appropriated by the Legislature for education is not money spent; it is money put to use that eventually will return hefty dividends for the state and its residents. Right now Utah's investment in its youth is meager, and, although teachers are working hard, the lack of resources is having a negative impact on learning. A Utah Foundation study found that the Beehive State consistently ranks last among similar states in language and math scores.

That result is closely tied to the fact that Utah spends less per pupil than any other state and the gap between Utah and the next-lowest state is growing each year. Utah has the largest class sizes in the nation, a result of the propensity of Utahns to produce large families and the state's tax policy, which allows many of those families to pay little into the income-tax fund that pays for education. The Legislature can't do anything about the birth rate, but it could require those most responsible for crowding the schools to pay a fair share.

Shumway, in his State of Education speech, diplomatically pointed out how the Legislature's failure to adequately fund education is affecting schools. And he rightly tackled critical areas: early-childhood programs, technology, training.

Expanded kindergarten is proven to give children a boost and help them keep up with their classmates as they enter the early grades. The state's optional all-day kindergarten pilot program will expire this year if the Legislature does not act. That would be a serious mistake. Children must learn to read by third grade, and if they enter school without the skills taught in kindergarten, they often never catch up.

Shumway also rightly supports funding for better classroom applications of technology, a necessary component of education in the 21st century to help students meet the needs of employers and to improve teacher training.

With 50,000 new students entering Utah schools in the next five years, the pressure is greater than ever on the Legislature to acknowledge that the same funding philosophy that worked in the past is no longer producing results.

Shumway called it a "miracle" that Utah students do as well as they do, given the financial constraints imposed by the Legislature. We, too, commend the efforts of underpaid educators to do the best they can with what they have. But the results are not good enough. We're not properly preparing youngsters for college or careers. Our test scores, compared with similar states, are low and the gap between Utah and the better-funded states is growing.

We've got to close that gap.