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Show Schools May Cost $ I Billion Per Year in Utah by 1985 All school programs must be carefully evaluated against the benefits received if Utah is to control- educational costs and finance public school operating operat-ing expenditures from present tax sources in the decade ahead. This warning was sounded by Utah Foundation, the private research organization, in their latest analysis of school expenditure trends in Utah. The report indicates that school operating costs in Utah will approach $1 billion a year by the mid-1980's if present trends continue. In addition to this outlook for substantially higher school operating expenditures, ex-penditures, added amounts will be needed for capital outlay, debt service, and school lunch. According to the Foundation, Founda-tion, much of the expected increase over the next ten years will be the result of enrollment growth and rising prices which are not controllable controll-able by state and local officials. A large part of the projected increase, however, is based on past trends and therefore is subject to future discretionary decisions. It is this portion of the projected increase that Foundation analysts ana-lysts say should be. subject to closer legislative and administrative adminis-trative scrutiny. During the past 10 years, school operating expenditures in Utah rose by $167 million. Approximately $77 million, or 46 of the increase, was accounted for by inflation (i.e. the reduced purchasing power of the dollar) and J9.7 million, or 6 of the increase, was the result of increased school enrollment. The Foundation study shows that $80.8 million, or 48 of the school expenditure rise between 1964-65 and 1974-75, is attributable to a variety of factors, such as (1) increased retirement and fringe benefits for school employees, (2) reductions in the average class size, (3) increased employment employ-ment of nonteaching instructional instruc-tional personnel, (4) introduction introduc-tion of new programs, and (5) salary increases of cost-of-living changes. If spending for these other factors should increase in the next decade at the same rate as it has during the. past ten years, another $300 million would be added to school operating costs in Utah be the 1985-86 school year. A large part of the financing problem for Utah schools in the next decade will be caused by an expected rise in school enrollments, according to the Foundation. Between the 1964-65 and the 1974-75 school years, average daily membership member-ship in the Utah schools rose by only 9. During the next ten years school enrollments in Utah are expected to climb by 28. This resumption of rapid growth in the Utah schools will add about $89 million to annual school operating costs over the next decade based on the present level of school finance. , In addition to the increase in school operating costs resulting result-ing from enrollment growth, expenditures will tend to rise with changes in the price level. Over the past ten years the consumer's price index rose at an average rate of about 5.2 per year. During the past few years, the inflation rate has been well above this ten-year average, although it has been declining somewhat in recent months. If the annual inflation rate in the next decade should average 5, an additional $256 million per year would be needed by 1985-86 to fund the present level of school services in Utah. Utah presently is spending about $315 million per year for school operations (1975-76 estimate). The Foundation study indicates that this expenditure would more than treble by 1985-86 if the spending trends of the past ten years are continued through the next decade. |