Proposition: Utah should increase budget for schools to be able to have at least one school

psychologist in each of its public schools.

Type of Organization: Problem-Solution

Case Outline:

I. Students are in need of mental health services.

A. Over 100,000 students are in need of mental health services in Utah school districts.

i. fewer than 20% of those students are receiving mental health services. “We

have seen a significant increase in mental health issues with our students

including three student suicides in the last six months,” said director of the

Student and Family Resources Department of the Davis School District, Brad

Christensen (Dean, 2019).

ii. A fill-in counselor found that 3rd and 4th grade students were thinking about

suicide. The fill-in counselor (the principal) advocates for more school

psychologists and is pushing to have at least one in each 36 elementary

schools in her district (Tanner, 2018).

iii. It was recommended to have more mental health support in schools by the

Final Report by the Federal Commission on school safety as a strategy in

preventing school shootings (Devos, Azar, Nielsen et al., 2018).

II. There aren’t enough school psychologists in Utah schools.

A. In 2016 the school psychologist to student overall ratio from K-12th grade was 1

to 725.

i. The states recommended ratio is 1 to 350, which is still not ideal

(Jacobson, 2016). The problem arises when there isnt enough time for a
 psychologist to attend to students needs. In the Jorden school district a

school principal had to fill in as the counselor because their school

psychologist is split between duties at other schools. The psychologist is

only part-time there and split between other schools in that district

(Tanner, 2018).

ii. “In the best-funded districts, there is more full-time psychological

counseling available for students. Yet, even in these districts, principals

indicate that they have more students who need help with stress

management than the existing counseling services can provide.” (Strauss,

2012). Considering other districts that have psychologists working half-

time, the number of students going without support is much higher.

B. Schools are responsible for providing social services to students.

i. Utah’s population in 2019 is 3.22 million (World Population Review,

2019) and in 2017 public school enrolment was over 650,000 students

(Cortez, 2017). With the population growing this number will grow as

well. With a large portion of our population going through the school

system it is school’s responsibility to provide mental health services to

students.

ii. School are the largest distributers of social services and without enough

money to pay for professional help teachers are seeing the brunt of that

deficiency (The Salt Lake Tribune, 2017).

III. We need to increase education budget in order to get more school psychologists in

schools.
 A. Funding in education for per pupil has decreased since before the recession.

i. Our per-pupil and overall spending for education is 50th place in the U.S.

we lost $41 million in the education budget in 2018 (Bennett, 2019). Even

after spending 91% of the education budget in K-12 we are still lower than

our pre-recession budget (Utah Children’s Budget Report, 2019).

B. Utah should legislate a small tax of 10 cents per gallon to increase education

budget.

i. By enacting this tax Utah could increase the education funding in one year

by $100 million dollars (Wood, 2018).

IV. Professional mental health services are more accessible for students to receive help.

A. It was recommended to have more mental health support in schools by the Final

Report by the Federal Commission on school safety as a strategy in preventing

school shootings (Devos, Azar, Nielsen et al., 2018).

i. Our Gov. Garry Herbert has created a task force and had state lawmakers

fund for researching why people are dying to suicide (Nutt, 2018).

ii. For others who struggle with school or have disabilities also need that

extra help, and the way to address these kinds of issues is to have early

intervention which would be provided by the school psychologists

(University of Texas, 2017).

B. Relief of stress and turnover for teachers.

i. Adding onto their teaching positions teachers are becoming fully

responsible to create intervention to different mental health issues, basic

health issues and behavioral intervention. The teachers job becomes much
 more difficult and stressful. This creates more and more teachers to leave

their positions prematurely. If we are to have these social services it will

decrease stress and the turnover rate for many teachers (Salt Lake Tribune,

2017).

References

Bennett, L. (2019) Utah k-12 education funding drops for the first time in seven years, repot

states. Deseret News Utah. Retrieved from

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900056538/utah-k-12-education-funding-drops-for-

first-time-in-7-years-report-states.html

Cortez, M. (2017) Utah’s public school enrollment exceeds 650,000 students. Deseret News

Utah. Retrieved from https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900003130/utahs-public-

school-enrollment-exceeds-650000-students.html

Devos, B. Azar II, M., A. Nielsen, M., K. Whitaker, M. (2018) Final report of the federal

commission on school safety. Retrieved from https://www2.ed.gov/documents/school-

safety/school-safety-

report.pdf?utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_name=&utm_source=govdelivery&

utm_term=

Jacobson, M. (2016) Report: Utah student-to-counselor ratio high but improving. Deseret News

Utah. Retrieved from https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865644886/Report-Utah-

student-to-counselor-ratio-high-but-improving.html
Nutt, E., A. (2018) Utah’s suicide rate has shot up 46.5% since 1999 — making it the fifth-

highest in the nation. The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved from

https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/06/07/suicide-rates-rise-sharply-in-utah-and-across-

the-country-new-report-shows/

Tanner, C. (2018) This Utah school district plans to have a full-time psychologist in each of its

36 elementary schools by fall. The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved from

https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2018/07/20/this-utah-school-district/

The Salt Lake Tribune. (2017) Tribune op-ed: We need to focus on funding social services in

schools. The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved from

https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=4937975&itype=CMSID#gallery-carousel-

446996

University of Texas. (2017) Importance of early intervention in education. University of Texas.

Retrieved from https://degree.utpb.edu/articles/education/early-intervention-in-

education.aspx

Wood, B. (2018) Proposed gas-tax hike to boost Utah school funding may be in trouble, new

polls say. The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved from

https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2018/06/25/proposed-gas-tax-hike-to-boost-utah-

school-funding-may-be-in-trouble-new-poll-says/

World Population Review. (2019) Utah population 2019. World Population Review. Retrieved

from http://worldpopulationreview.com/states/utah-population/