As members of the state’s largest volunteer child advocacy association, the parents, teachers, grandparents and students in Utah PTA have a calling and mission to make every child’s potential a reality. We donate thousands of hours, worth millions of dollars, to our schools because we know education is key to achieving potential. When there is a threat to the funding Utah schools will receive, and therefore a threat to the future of our children, we are compelled to action.
In its current form, the Tax Restructuring Revision Bill, devised by the Tax Restructuring and Equalization Task Force, is a threat to the long-term funding of education in Utah. Utah PTA opposes the current version of the Tax Restructuring Revision Bill. The Utah Constitution guarantees all income tax be used to fund a K-12 public education system and higher education. Cutting the funding source for education, while proposing an increased tax on food and gas, places an untenable burden on Utah’s most vulnerable populations, including families with children who are already going hungry without adequate means to purchase food.
Utah PTA supports education legislation that maintains the constitutional guarantee that the Legislature will provide for the establishment and maintenance of a public education system that is available to all children in our state. We support education appropriations that fully fund enrollment growth and increase the weighted pupil unit by six percent. As we dedicate time, talents, blood, sweat and tears to the students of this state, we encourage Utah’s lawmakers to do the same by providing reliable financial support to our education system.
In anticipation of a December special session in which this topic will be discussed, we encourage all members of the Utah PTA to contact their state representatives to ask for a continued constitutional guarantee for robust educational funding in Utah. Visit HERE for a list of members of the Tax Restructuring and Equalization Task Force, talking points and questions to ask, and a link to find your legislators.
The motto of Utah PTA is, “Every child, one voice.” We encourage you to use yours now in behalf of education funding in Utah.
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