Thanks to Envision Utah for the legwork that shouldn’t have been necessary but turned out to be in the minds of legislators long used to kicking the K-12 funding can down the road.
Yes, getting the very best of our young to go into careers in K-12 and stay put happily for 30 or more highly successful years as teachers in Utah’s schools will require much better remuneration. It will also require money for far better classroom support and, in at least some subjects, manageable class size (think English and the enormous paper load). And, as I've been saying for years, it will be necessary to develop an additional, annually reliable stream of revenue dedicated to K-12 alone.
How will those be possible in a tax-averse environment and with the additional elephant in the room — the world’s highest costs for health care coverage — paid for out of school funding? Just a start — forget the idea of raiding the already dedicated state income tax pot.
Ron W. Smith, North Logan