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Show Utah Leads Educational Spending cifically exclude expenditures for private schools and colleges. col-leges. Approximately 51.5 of all expenditures by state and local lo-cal units in Utah went for public education last year, according ac-cording to the Foundation stu-day. stu-day. For the nation as a whole public education made up almost al-most 40.2 of state and local budgets. Public education constituted con-stituted 38.8 of all state and local government spending in the 11 Western States and 43.9. in the eight mountain states. Foundation analysts attribute attri-bute the high proportion of spending for public education in Utah to the abnormally high education load. Utah ranks at or near the top among i the 50 states in the percentage percent-age of school age population and in the proportion of such children who are actually enrolled en-rolled in the public schools. In addition, Utah is one of the leading states in the proportion propor-tion of its population erolled In the public colleges find, universities uni-versities of the state. Because of this extremely high education load, the average av-erage amount expended per student is below the national average despite the fact that Utah makes a greater effort to support education than does any other state. Utah ranks first among all the states of the nation in the proportion of its personal income in-come being expended for education. edu-cation. Moreover, Utah devotes de-votes a higher percentage of its combined state and local budget to education than does any other state. I These facts were revealed in V a study of educational expenditures expen-ditures in Utah prepared by Utah Foundation, the private governmental research organization. organi-zation. The study points out that during the 1965-66 fiscal year, public expenditures for education educa-tion in Utah were equal to nearly 11 of the total per-I per-I sonal income payments re-I re-I ceived by all individuals in the state. This compared with educational expenditures equal eq-ual to 6 2. of personal income in-come for the United States as a whole, 7.4 for the 11 Western West-ern States, and 9.0'; for the eight Mountain States. The Foundation report cites data compiled by the Governments Govern-ments Division of tho U. S. Bureau of the Census which shows that total expenditures for public education in Utah were equal to $257.7 million during the 1965-66 fiscal year. This included $167.3 million for local schools (elementary and secondary), $80.6 million for higher education, and $9.8 for other education. It is noted that those figures are for public pub-lic institutions only and spe- |