With what Gov. Mike Leavitt is calling a "stunning" economy, Utah should begin to look seriously at implementing the elements of its public education strategic plan that require some additional money.
If the current economic bump should prove to be a brief aberration, then Leavitt is wise to take the approach he has adopted this year in his budget deliberations - careful additional funding for the most needy areas of state government and one-time infusions of money where it can be helpful without committing future budgets should the boom go bust.But if the financial picture remains rosy, it will be time to get serious about reducing class sizes, bringing Utah teacher salaries into line with the promises made in the strategic plan (highest in the Mountain West), hiring more counselors, increasing the time children are in class and expanding on the technological innovation that has just begun.
If the governor and the Legislature don't commit to the funding necessary to reach the objectives of the plan, they will have to concede that the two-year planning effort for public education was another "pie-in-the-sky" exercise in wishful thinking that will fade away without any lasting effect.
A recent review of the progress being made toward implementing the plan indicates that the response among grass-roots educators is lukewarm and that some see the lack of funding as a fatal flaw.
In government, reviews, plans, discussions and new approaches to problems go on ad infinitum. Disillusion among the rank and file who are obligated to implement the ever-evolving chain of "new and improved" plans that come down is inevitable as they see one follow another without much concrete difference.
The current strategic plan could end up on the same scrap heap of futile plans that didn't have any significant impact, unless state leaders keep the plan before them and actively work to make its provisions reality.
The strategic planning for higher education is only now getting down to brass tacks, and it is likely the finished product also will connote more spending.
Simply put, the "world class" education system Utah says it wants will cost plenty.
It's true that much can be done by changing the way people think about education and how it is delivered, as reformers are quick to note. And that doesn't cost anything.
But as long as teachers have classes too large to allow for significant individual interaction with students, as long as students don't get the guidance they need to prepare and pursue meaningful individual education plans, as long as technology and the expertise to put it to good use are hit-and-miss, and as long as experimentation in innovation are confined to just a few lucky schools, not much will change on the scale envisioned by the strategic plan.
Utah has to live within its means, but if the economy continues to grow, it will be time to start building a system that (in the words of the strategic plan) "assures Utah the best educated citizenry in the world and each individual the training to succeed in a global society."