In January of 2009, Maryland was named the number one state for education by the Education Week Journal, according to the Maryland Public Schools website (www.marylandpublicschools.org). So what makes Maryland’s education system more efficient than Utah’s?
Part of it may have to do with budget issues. While Maryland refused to cut back on educational spending, even proposing to add an additional $68.3 million on K-12 education, Utah experienced a $450 million budget cut, according to the Education Week website (www.edweek.org). This would make Maryland one of the top spenders on education, bringing the total to about $5.4 billion. That’s about half of Utah’s overall state budget of $10.6 billion.
Utah has also gained about 25,000 more students in the last year, which is about the size of Utah State University. This gain in students makes it harder for the state to provide educational opportunities of quality, says the Utah System of Higher Education (utahsbr.edu).
Utah has not always been on the bottom of the charts as far as education goes. In the last national survey readily available, from 1997, Utah was ranked number one in education efficiency, although the teacher quality was ranked twenty-first, according to the Montana Educational website (www.msubillings.edu). In recent years however, Utah has reached the bottom of the charts in all aspects.
There have been some improvements in recent years, however. Utah improved in grade 8 mathematics scores in 2009. But in grade 4, education efficiency has either had no change, or has decreased. Kentucky increased in both grades, and Maryland stayed the same in both aspects.
Utah is still at the top of the charts when it comes to students completing high school, just above the national average, according to higher education (www.highereducation.org).
Overall, Utah has educational strengths, but there are many areas to improve upon if the state is going to catch up with states, such as Maryland and Arkansas, whose governors make education their highest priority, even in economic hardships.