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Again, Rep. Ken Ivory pounds the pulpit with "Utah is more than $2.5 billion below average in per-pupil funding for education because [of federal lands]."
Pretend that Utah's federal lands do not exist. What remains is a state of about 35,550 square miles. There are four other states of about that same size. Those states rank 4th, 9th, 11th and 15th in percent of personal income going to education, while Utah ranks only about 30th.
About 20 years ago Utah ranked about 10th in the nation in effort to fund public education, but since then our Legislature has consistently made changes that have resulted in less effort to fund public education.
With that record, I sincerely doubt that privatizing federal lands or turning them over to the state would result in any increased effort to fund education.
Fred Ash
Sandy