The economy is strong and the state has, over the past several years, been pumping money into schools — more than $1.1 billion in state money over four years, on top of increases in local tax revenue.
So in that sense, it’s not surprising that there’s been a little bit of a wage war among the districts in the Salt Lake Valley.
This is kind of a no-brainer, but the largest portion of the money spent on education goes to teachers. And teachers have been underpaid, leading to a shortage as the number of school children continues to rise.