Davis Board of Education members don't want the expense of athletic programs to hurt the classroom, but they also don't like the idea of making kids foot the bill, as suggested by some legislators and business leaders.
One possible alternative: raising property taxes to help pay for athletics — and putting athletics money back into the classroom.
"Frankly we don't like doing this. But this year alone we've cut our administrative budget by just over $1 million. . . . We've shouldered a bunch of cuts," district spokesman Chris Williams said. "We have to start looking to other ways to come up with money."
A district-wide increase in property tax — amounting to about $8 on a home valued at $175,000 — would pay the $750,000 a year it costs to fund extracurricular coaching, teaching and custodial salaries as well as sports maintenance expenses, Williams said. Right now, that money is coming out of the maintenance and operation fund.
Board members discussed the tax increase idea at a meeting this past week, a day before a legislative interim committee began talks on the same topic.
The Education Interim Committee is expected to spend the next two years defining what constitutes public education, as mandated under SB154, the "education omnibus bill."
The aim is to ensure the state's limited funds go where they're most needed.
But the end result could dictate which school programs, from math to the arts to athletics, would lose state funding, possibly leaving some to die on the vine.
For instance, Rep. Dave Ure, R-Kamas, who will head up the study, suggested the state focus funding on a "basic education," and let communities that want, say, a football team, pony up for it on their own.
"How much can we expect the citizens of Utah to pay" for an array of public school programs? Ure asked. "I want to try and put something out there . . . that gives us a basic guideline for where our money goes."
Davis' proposed tax increase seems to fit into that idea. However, the district is adamant about avoiding charging kids steep fees to play sports.
To fund sports through fees, the district would have to set increases of 360 percent at the high school level and 464 percent at the junior high level.
Well-to-do families could foot the bill and low-income families could obtain fee waivers, but middle-income students — and even lower-income families whose income is just above fee-waiver eligibility — would have a tough time participating.
"We just don't think the majority of families could afford that," Williams said.
The Jordan Board of Education agrees. After examining whether to quadruple fees to make extra-curricular activities self-sustaining, the board decided to continue paying $1.25 million a year to support those programs.
The board will, however, survey residents to see whether user fees ought to increase to free up some tax money for other school needs.
A Dan Jones & Associates poll conducted for the Deseret News last month offers a glimpse into what the board might find. It showed 66 percent of Utahns surveyed opposed pulling tax support for extracurricular activities, an idea supported by the governor's Employers' Education Coalition. The survey had an error margin of plus or minus 4 percent.
Before passing any tax levy, Davis would have to hold a truth-in-taxation hearing, which would likely occur in August.
E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com; ehayes@desnews.com