A new poll shows that a majority of Utahns support a ballot initiative to increase school funding in the state.
Utah residents won’t cast votes on the Our Schools Now ballot initiative until November 2018 but support is already strong according to a poll commissioned by The Salt Lake Tribune and The University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics.
57 percent of Utah residents either strongly or somewhat support a tax hike that will result in $700 million additional dollars for Utah schools.
“This poll is interesting because 52 percent of those polled that identify as Republicans support this and on the other side 77 percent of Democrats do which shows that this issue transcends party lines," says Jason Perry, director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics.
Perry says additional polling will take place to track approval of the initiative over time as the 2018 ballot approaches.
Our Schools Now seeks to secure funding that will be spent at the discretion of school and district administrators. Some of that money can be spent increasing teacher salaries along with providing more professional development and needed classroom equipment.
