The U.S. Department of Education sees no politically easy way to fix federal funding formulas that now give Utah far less per pupil than any other state.
The department recently released the long-awaited second half of a study that, as promised, evaluates a laundry list of ways that formulas might be changed to improve fairness and benefit Utah.But the formulas all require congressional action. "And they all would take money away from other states to give it to Utah. That makes them difficult politically," said Art Kingdom, press secretary to Rep. Wayne Owens, D-Utah. Owens and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, pushed Congress to order the study in 1989.
Despite the political obstacles, Hatch - the ranking Republican on the education-overseeing Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee - plans to push some of those options anyway this week as the full Senate debates education reform bills.
Hatch plans to propose an amendment to change formulas in a way that would benefit or at least not hurt 28 states (including Utah) but would hurt 22. That increases its chances. The entire Utah delegation introduced an identical proposal in a separate bill last year.
Hatch's amendment would erase provisions in current formulas that reward states that pay large totals for education, which are normally in high-cost-of-living areas. Even though such grants are targeted for low-income students, the provision results in many wealthy states receiving more per child than poor states.
Such provisions hurt Utah because while its residents pay among the highest ratio per taxpayer for education, the total spent is still small because of large family sizes. In other words, fewer Utah taxpayers support more children.
Hatch's amendment would increase federal education funding in Utah by an estimated 21 percent, or an extra $3.7 million a year. Some states would lose up to 19.5 percent, including Connecticutt, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York.
Hatch notes that the first half of the Education Department study, which was released in 1990, showed that the federal government gave Utah only $130 per child in 1989 - 38 percent below the national average. The next lowest was Nevada at $150 per child.
In contrast, children in Alaska received the most - $972 per child, or more than four times the national average.
Among possible improvements to funding formulas listed in the second-half of the study are:
- Reward states that pay a high ratio per taxpayer for education - as Utahns do. Hatch's current proposal would not reward them as much as simply put them on equal footing with states that spend large totals on education.
The study said a reward system "would have moderate redistributive effects in most cases, although major increases could occur for certain high-effort states - Alaska, Montana, Utah and Wyoming."
- Stop using Census poverty data as a measure of where low-income children live for funding formulas. Because the Census is taken only every 10 years, the system rewards states that lose population and hurts growing states (such as Utah) by not counting children that move or are born into them.
Improvements may include using yearly Census estimates instead. Another would be using the number of children receiving school lunch assistance - but the study warns states and local districts could easily manipulate that data.
- Change formulas for education of children with disabilities to take into account their severity. "Wisconsin, Georgia, Massachusetts and Utah would gain substantially, while Oregon, Mississippi and North Dakota would lose."
The study warns, however, that "methods of classifying children with disabilities appear inconsistent across states and could be manipulated in pursuit of federal aid."
Hatch said he hopes the Senate will look closer at some of those other options in the future, but adopt his amendment now. Owens said he also plans to use the new report to help push fixing formulas in the House.
"It (the study) is further proof that we're not getting our fair share of federal dollars for support of our Utah public schools," Owens said.