Nation’s Largest Public Opinion Gathering Finds Utahns want to be a top-ten academic state
Study finds residents want to invest in highly-leveraged strategies to improve educational outcomes.
SALT LAKE CITY (Sept. 14, 2015) — Findings from nearly 53,000 residents surveyed as part of Envision Utah’s Your Utah, Your Future campaign show Utahns want their education system to be one of the best in the nation and are willing to invest in a list of proven strategies. Along with jobs, water, and air quality, those surveyed marked education as one of the most important issues facing the state in coming years.
“Utahns understand that an educated workforce is the strongest driver of a healthy economy,” said Robert Grow, President & CEO of Envision Utah. “They also believe that educated Utahns make better citizens and lead to a better, safer community. And they want to ensure that all Utahns have a full opportunity to succeed.”
Almost four in five Utahns (78 percent) voted for a future scenario in which the state increases investment in education by about five percent, per year over the next five years, and then consistently spends at that level going forward while funding growth in enrollment. The investment would be spent on a set of strategies that includes:
· Early childhood education
· Teacher compensation, training, and professional development
· Rigorous standards, ongoing assessments of progress, and targeted interventions
· Affordable tuition for higher education
Envision Utah’s Education Action Team estimated that consistent investment in these strategies could increase median earnings by 11 percent, decrease poverty by 17 percent, and increase state tax revenue by a sufficient amount to pay for the increased expenditures. When asked if they were willing to raise taxes in the near term in order to obtain these benefits, 71 percent of survey respondents said they were at least somewhat willing to do so.
“There’s a lot of consensus about investing in a list of proven, highly-leveraged strategies,” Grow said. “Utahns are cautious about spending, but if the money is carefully spent they’re willing to make the trade-off. They want something done.”
Envision Utah’s Your Utah, Your Future campaign became the nation’s largest public outreach effort, gathering nearly 53,000 Utah voices and opinions through a two month online survey that was cross-checked with a Dan Jones random sample survey. The study identified eleven key issues: agriculture, air quality, recreation, disaster resilience, public lands, transportation and communities, housing and cost of living, education, energy, jobs and economy and water. For more information, visit http://envisionutah.org/.
