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By Howard Stephenson
Utah State Senator, District 11

For the past several years, Utah demographers have predicted 150,000 new students would be entering Utah schools between 2004 and 2015. They were wrong. The numbers are proving to be much larger.

Projections have been consistently low. This tidal wave of students means increased costs on two fronts: buildings and teachers. Assuming 1,500 students per school, Utah will need more than 100 new school buildings. And with buildings costing approximately $20,000 per student, taxpayers will have to find more than $3 billion more just for these new students.

All those students will also need teachers. To preserve the current average class size of 22.1, Utah will need another 7,240 teachers. With an average starting teacher's salary and benefits package costing $27,437, these additional teachers will cost another $198 million per year. With more than half our teachers expected to retire in the next 10 years, just hiring teachers at any price will be difficult.

The districts already confronting this explosive growth have moved to or are considering year-round school. However, year-round school can only cut these numbers by 25 percent to 30 percent. Another $2.25 billion in schools and $149 million per year in salaries and benefits is still a tremendous increase.

How will we pay for all these new students?


This is the first half of my op-ed piece published in today's Deseret Morning News. Read the rest at http://deseretnews.com/article/content/mobile/0,5223,695219211,00.html.

2 Comments:

 brownbag said...

So, basically what the op-ed says is that the State is looking for ways to pay the parent off with a little money so it doesn't have to spend more to educate the kid. Then it doesn't have to build buildings and hire teachers.

Hope ... Hope ... Hope.

Then, we hope that the parents actually send the kid somewhere that they receive a better education. We aren't going to make the rules to strict, or check up on the schools too close. Or, at least, we are not going to hold them to the same standards as we hold our public schools to.

Oh yea, we say it's so poor people can get a better education for their kids. Thank goodness the rich ones are keeping their kids out of public schools in such high numbers that it's really helping the State out on the building and hiring issues.

Yea, that sounds like the number. So, now it's not about helping poor people get better schooling. It's about paying poor parents kids out of school so we don't have to build buildings and hire teachers to teach them. Another example of good fiscal planning.

10/18/2007 5:13 AM  

 Jeremy said...

The most classic thing about this timely commentary is that while Sen. Stephenson is talking about the coming tidal wave, he and republicans are planning again on cutting the income taxes that should instead be used to pay for this influx of new students.

How foolish.

10/18/2007 6:52 AM  

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