Governor's office, state school board pitch K-12 budget priorities to lawmakers

SALT LAKE CITY — The 2025 Utah legislative session is only a day old, but lawmakers are already focusing on the funding of the state's K-12 public education system.

The Legislature's Public Education Subcommittee gathered Wednesday for its initial session meeting. The body provides legislative oversight and makes recommendations on budget matters concerning Utah's public schools.

Wednesday's gathering functioned largely as a preview of this year's public education funding efforts in Utah — highlighted by budget recommendations and strategic goal presentations from key organizations such as the Utah State Board of Education and the governor's office.

The meeting also doubled as "Public Education Budgeting 101" for new subcommittee members — reviewing base budget programs, statutory functions, funding frameworks and Utah's public education recent budget history.

The public education subcommittee is charged with being the initial legislative body to, say, identify budget priorities, reallocate funds from one program to another, or to cut a program entirely.

State Board of Education pushes for weighted pupil unit boost

Representing the Utah State Board of Education, board chairman Matt Hymas told the subcommittee that the board's primary objective is to graduate Utah students with the character and skills needed to strengthen Utah communities.

"Our mission is to open doors of opportunity for all Utah children," said Hymas, before introducing the board's top legislative funding priority to increase the value of the weighted pupil unit.

The weighted pupil unit is the amount of money the state gives to schools for each student enrolled. Utah's current weighted pupil unit value in Utah is $4,494.

State law requires an annual inflationary adjustment to the value of the weighted pupil unit. That's approximately 4% this year.

"The board is requesting an additional 3% to the value of the (weighted pupil unit) — or the increase that's mandated by law — for a total of 7%," said deputy superintendent of operations Scott Jones.

The weighted pupil unit amount that's requested above the inflationary adjustment comes to about $135 million.

"The (requested weighted pupil unit) value increases make a tremendous, tremendous difference, as does all the other appropriations that you provide us to public education," added Jones. "So we ask for your consideration."

Rep. Matt MacPherson, R-West Valley City, asked Jones why the state school board is seeking a weighted pupil unit increase above the inflationary adjustment even while enrollment in Utah's public schools is decreasing.

There's not always a direct correlation between enrollment and weighted pupil unit values — and costs to educate students have gone up considerably, said Jones

Governor's public education budget recommendations

Gov. Spencer Cox's 2026 fiscal year budget — built around his "Built Here" agenda — is anchored to three building pillars: people, place and prosperity.

"The education budget lines up and touches on at least two of those pillars: people and prosperity," Rich Nye, senior adviser to the governor, told the subcommittee on Wednesday.

The governor's annual budget recommendation includes approximately $800 million for public education. Highlights from that figure include:

• $179 million that would go toward a 4% increase to the weighted pupil unit.
• $139 million that would go toward student well-being efforts — including school safety and safe campuses, managing cellphones and other devices in school and student nutrition.
• $137 million that would go toward career and technical education.
• $99 million that would go toward public school teachers — including paid professional hours, school supplies and materials and student teachers.
• $3 million that would go toward '"First Credential for All" for students — including concurrent enrollment college credit, AP courses and industry-specific credentials.

Part of the "student well-being" funding is designed to manage student cellphone use at schools.

Cellphones can cause distractions in the classroom. "And it's been a priority of the governor that we address this as a state," said Nye.

Nye added that further cellphone management details are forthcoming but could include lockers in classrooms to store cellphones.

"This is a little fiscal effort to incentivize — allowing academics to be the priority during the school day. If we can remove those distractions that the cellphones have created, we would certainly explore all those options to do so," he said.

Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Riverton, noted that her local school district has a policy that students simply keep their phones in their backpacks.

That policy teaches kids self-discipline — and it doesn't cost anything, she said. "I would be leery of investing money in pouches and lockers, but I can understand the goal of trying to get kids focused in the classroom."

Utah's student enrollment trends

Last fall, there were 668,817 students enrolled in Utah's public schools — a decrease of just over 1,000 students.

"This is the third year of enrollment decline, and projections indicate that enrollment will continue to decline over the next decade due, in part, to declining birth rates and reduced in-migration," said legislative financial analyst Rachelle Gunderson in an update to the subcommittee.

Enrollment trends impact public education funding.

State statute establishes the annual process for the Legislature to adjust public education funding based on both inflation and student enrollment growth.

Such adjustments apply to various programs such as the basic budget, pupil transportation, educator salary adjustment, dual-language immersion and charter school funding, said Gunderson.

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