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March 29, 2005
Per Student spending in Utah
[Utah Schools, Utah Public Schools, Utah School Districts - SchoolMatters] When I moved from Alabama to Utah I thought I had arrived in a public education utopia. Students did better on standardized tests, AP tests, reading, everything. So you can imagine my surprise when all I heard was whining about per student spending rates (which are low in Utah) and student to teacher ratios (which are high in Utah).
But this website confirms my suspicions and makes me really wonder what all the whining is about. In Alabama, they spend $6,857 per student (which is below the national average of $8,848). In Utah, we spend a paltry $4,900 per student. Alabama's reading proficiency is 22% (national average is 30%). Utah's reading proficiency is 32%.
The conclusion to make here is that Utah spends less per student than Alabama but gets much better results on standardized tests. Shouldn't other states be trying to figure out how we can educate students better than they can on almost half the money per student? I still don't see the problem with Utah education, and, by the way, I still think we should spend more on education in Utah.
Posted by jones at March 29, 2005 03:10 PM
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