Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and legislative leaders are touting that they’re investing hundreds of millions of dollars in public education in next year’s budget, but when you look into the numbers, the reality doesn’t match the rhetoric.
The headline-grabbing centerpiece? A nearly $1,500 salary increase for public school teachers funded by $50 million in state money. This comes alongside another $50 million in one-time money for a $1,000 bonus for educator support staff.
There’s another $178 million to pay for a 4% funding increase for public schools. That increase is mandated under state law to cover inflationary costs in per-student sending. Legislative leaders approved this increase in December.
The $50 million for the teacher salary boost comes at the expense of a proposed 1% discretionary increase in per-pupil funding that would have cost $42 million in next year’s budget.
The biggest expenditure of new education money is the $65 million that fully funds Speaker Mike Schultz’s HB447, which creates a grant program for schools to provide more career and technical education.
The rest of the education funding announced on Friday is mostly just a slight increase over last year’s funding for the same programs. Most of those funds were part of the base budgets passed earlier in the session, meaning there’s nothing beyond what was already approved.
- Educator professional time - Lawmakers created this program in 2022. The $77.7 million in this year’s budget was approved in the base budget and represents a $3 million increase over last year.
- Teachers’ supplies and materials - $14.3 million was already approved in the base budget, but it’s a mere $400,000 more than last year’s $13.9 million.
- Stipends for future educators - This program was created last year to provide a stipend to student teachers. The $12.4 million is actually $400,000 less than what was requested for this year’s budget, but an increase over the $8.4 million in last year’s budget.
- Grow Your Own Educator Pipeline Grant Program - The $7.3 million for this initiative is actually about $400,000 less than what lawmakers put toward the program last year.
The final item, $795,000 of ongoing money to help teachers pay for professional liability insurance premiums is an offshoot of HB267, the so-called union busting bill that eliminates the rights of Utah public employees to collectively bargain with their employers.
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The Bottom Line
When you strip away the mandatory spending, here’s what remains: approximately $120 million in actual new ongoing funding, plus about $55 million in one-time money.
For context, the $120 million of ongoing money is slightly more than the $103 million price tag for the income tax cut that lawmakers are pushing through in the final days of the 2025 session. The money to pay for the tax reduction comes from the same source that funds Utah’s public education.
Additionally, legislative leaders approved adding another $40 million to Utah’s school vouchers program, the Utah Fits All Scholarship, in the draft budget released Friday evening.
In total, the $143 million allocated to another round of tax cuts and expanding vouchers diverts more money from potential investments in public education than the approximately $110 million in non-mandatory increases lawmakers announced last week.
