One of the reasons why teachers actually received the raise and bonus appropriated for them was that the appropriation for that raise was specifically called for in an entirely separate RAISE & BONUS BILL passed last General Session.  HB 382 Amendments to Education Funding (Sponsor Rep. Brad Dee) was drafted so teachers actually saw the full effect (or nearly full effect) of the INTENT of the Legislature and not some bureaucratic top -down skimming strategy.  Legislative leadership knows if the money isn’t “earmarked” this specific way, THE MONEY DOESN’T GET TO THE TEACHER.  Otherwise, we (the Legislature) would have accomplished the same thing through normal appropriation channels.

In an effort to stop history from repeating itself (i.e. $50 million in textbook funding that never found its way into the classroom a few years back, and countless other examples)  the Legislature has to play hardball with the Office of Education and the Districts by making the appropriation so visual, so politically unpalletable if the Office of Education or the Districts spend the money on anything else beside a raise/bonus it makes them look like…well…a Bunch of Big Dopes!

Lumping this coming year’s (FY08-09) much anticipated teacher raise into the generic machanism of the WPU (Weighted Pupil Unit), in my opinion, could have a regressive effect on the intent of the Legislature.  That intent…getting the money to the teachers.  The WPU is divided between countless other “important” public education expenditures (a big chunk of them administrative).  And, sometimes the target for these funds are temporarily misalligned by administrators as the money works its way through the System.

Clearly, the way to make sure the new “teacher raise” money gets into the hands of the teachers is to do what we did last session and take a dollar out of the bank and hand that dollar to the teacher (minus, of course, taxes and benefits, etc.). 

Makes sense to me.  link HERE for Salt Lake Trib article.