The Office of the State Auditor announced the release of a public education spending dashboard which begins to help answer the public’s common question, “Where does the money go in public education?”
This interactive dashboard visually displays the areas where money is spent within Utah’s public K-12 education system, both by spending categories and by local education agency. The dashboard integrates data that is collected and published by the Utah State Board of Education (USBE). The dashboard is intended to make it easier for the public to understand and interpret education spending in Utah.
State Auditor John Dougall said, “Public education is the single largest component of Utah’s budget. In Utah, we value our system of public education but taxpayers often question where the money went and how well it was spent. During fiscal year 2018, Utahns spent more than $6.7 billion on public education, or approximately $10,500 per student. With our growing student population and increasing demands for educational services, maximizing the use of every dollar spent is essential. This dashboard helps the public better understand education spending, easily seeing where money is being spent and how that has changed over time.”
This dashboard is part of a larger effort by the Office – Project Kids – to analyze education spending. Project KIDS is an innovative performance audit that is currently integrating data from key information data systems across Utah’s system of public education. Project KIDS is intended to help the public better understand how money reaches the classroom and its impact on student learning.
The public education spending dashboard may be found at:
