Utah public school districts

Understand the numbers.

Understand how Utah school districts collect, spend, and manage taxpayer dollars.

Independent, nonpartisan analysis of district finances, taxes, staffing, enrollment, debt, and educational outcomes.

Independent and nonpartisan. An independent research and data project, not affiliated with the Utah State Board of Education, the Utah Office of the State Auditor, Utah school districts, or any other government agency.

First case study

A closer look at Tooele County School District

Tooele is where we build the methodology and investigative framework that can be used for any Utah district: finances, taxes, spending by category, peer comparisons with Iron, Cache, and Box Elder, and open research questions.

Explore the case study → Tooele finances

The central question

Are Utah school districts using taxpayer resources efficiently?

We don’t assume the answer. We measure each district’s spending against the things that should drive it, and publish the evidence so you can reach your own conclusion.

Enrollment

Has spending grown faster or slower than the number of students served?

Inflation

After adjusting for rising prices, how much has spending actually changed?

Peer districts

How does a district compare with similar Utah districts on the same measures?

Outcomes

What results — graduation, achievement, growth — accompany the resources spent?

Lower spending is not automatically better, and higher spending is not automatically evidence of poor management. How we evaluate efficiency →

Tooele case study · Spending

Where does the money go?

Every $100 Tooele County School District spends, divided by what it pays for. Select a category to see its history and how it compares.

Compare with Iron, Cache, Box Elder, and any Utah district →

Tooele case study · Compare

How does Tooele compare?

Spending per student in Tooele and three Utah peer districts. Each district keeps the same color on every chart. Tooele’s jump in FY2024 mostly reflects its online program shrinking from 8,882 students to 263 — fewer students sharing the district’s costs. See the enrollment detail →

All comparison metrics →

Featured investigation · Tooele case study

In progress

Where has spending increased?

District expenditures have changed substantially over the past decade. We are examining the major spending categories, adjusting for inflation and enrollment, and comparing Tooele with Iron, Cache, and Box Elder.

Fiscal years: FY2016–FY2026
Primary sources: TCSD budgets and actuals; State Auditor spending data; audited financial statements
Status: Data collection
Updated

Follow this investigation →

What this analysis will answer

Which categories grew the most?
How large was the change, in real dollars?
Did it outpace enrollment?
How do peer districts compare?
What do the records explain — and what don’t they?

Tooele case study · Open questions

Questions worth asking

Where evidence about Tooele County School District is incomplete, we frame issues as questions, not conclusions. Each is tied to a dataset we are collecting.

Has administrative spending grown faster than enrollment over the past ten years, and if so, what changed?

How did past enrollment projections compare with actual enrollment, and how did they inform decisions to build new schools?

A district-commissioned purchase-card review noted that transaction data did not include a required business-purpose description for every purchase. What, if anything, has changed since?

See all research questions →

How we work