Jeff Saunders: Utah Legislature should not take money away from public education – Salt Lake Tribune

I am a teacher. This is my 16th year in public education. And I am worried. Public education is under attack by the Utah Legislature.

The Legislature has been complaining for years about a structural imbalance of “surplus” income tax revenues they aren’t willing to spend to help our students and properly fund our schools. They have let almost a billion dollars build up for an education “rainy day” while our state is last in the nation in per-pupil spending.

The Legislature forces our parents and guardians to shell out hundreds and thousands of dollars each year in student fees. They make our students beg for their education by selling candy bars. Our families participate in multiple other fundraisers each year to fund the gaps in our students’ education.

The latest proposal has the Legislature diverting around $600 million from public education to fund other children’s programs and programs for the disabled. Both are noble causes, but what is nobler than giving the children of Utah a world-class education?

With this “surplus,” Utah could lower class sizes to a max of 25 students per class, eliminate student fees, allow schools to build their own facilities without bonding and increasing our property taxes, pay teachers a livable professional wage with better health and retirement benefits so we attract the best teaching talent in the nation to give our kids a world class education that will prepare them for the jobs for the future.

I didn’t get into teaching to be rich. The draw to teaching used to be working with kids while getting an OK salary with excellent health insurance and state retirement. The excellent health insurance has become high-deductible plans. The state retirement has become self-funded with a meager match on a 401(k), while hardly increasing salary yearly when factoring in inflation.