2020 Education Funding Study

2020 Utah Education Funding Study

Overview

The Utah State Board of Education commissioned an education funding study to inform decisions about how to best target resources to meet evolving student needs. WestEd and Augenblick Palaich and Associates (APA) conducted the independent study.

2020 Utah Education Funding Study Overview

Reports

The report was conducted in two phases. The final Phase 2 report was presented to the Utah State Board of Education, Legislature, and local education leaders in December 2020 and January 2021. The full written report was published in February 2021. The interim Phase 1 report was published in January 2020.

Summaries 

In addition to the full report, please see the links below for brief summaries of the key findings and recommendations.

Utah Education Funding Study Summary 1: Phase 2 Visualized in Nine Key Findings
This summary provides an overview and visualizations of nine key findings of the study.

Utah Education Funding Study Summary 2: Overall Conclusions
This summary provides an overview of the overall conclusions of the study.

Utah Education Funding Study Summary 3: Policy Recommendations
This summary provides an overview of Recommendation 1: Increase the Basic Property Tax Levy to rebalance the defined local share of the Basic School Program and minimize the fiscal impact of system improvements to funding distribution.

Utah Education Funding Study Summary 4: Policy Recommendations
This summary provides an overview of Recommendation 2: Establish an add-on Weighted Pupil Unit for economically disadvantaged students in the Basic School Program, replacing existing programs targeted to these students.

Utah Education Funding Study Summary 5: Policy Recommendations
This summary provides an overview of Recommendation 5: Reexamine the Related to Basic programs to optimize coherence, stability, continuous improvement, and balance with Basic School Program funds.