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From: Chris Buckley <alan@sabir.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Books Banned in Utah.
Date: 12 Aug 2024 11:58:23 GMT
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On 2024-08-12, Charles Packer <mailbox@cpacker.org> wrote:
> On Sun, 11 Aug 2024 11:25:41 +0200, D wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 11 Aug 2024, Charles Packer wrote:
>> 
>>>
>>> Subsequently the New York Times ran a story that resolved my puzzlement
>>> over the structure of the list. If at least three school districts
>>> decide to ban a book, all school districts in the state are required to
>>> remove it from their libraries.
>>> I looked up the locations of each of the five districts appearing in
>>> the list and they're all in small towns.
>>> Fun fact: Utah spends the least of any state on its public schools, on
>>> a per pupil basis.
>>>
>>>
>> What are their results per pupil? Money does not equal results as is
>> often so painfully felt in sweden.
>
>
> According to this website,
> "New York has the highest per-pupil spending of all of the 50 
> states. New York currently spends $24,040 per pupil, 
> approximately 90% above the national average. Utah has the 
> lowest per-pupil spending of $7,628 per student. "
>
> https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/per-pupil-spending-by-
> state

And????  What exactly are you trying to imply?

Other "fun facts": On the 2022 NAEP (National Assessment of
Educational Progress), which looks at 4th and 8th graders, Utah was the
7th best and 3rd best state in reading, respectively.  In math, it was
5th and tied for 1st (with Massachusetts, with spending more than twice Utah)!

Education is highly valued in Utah, with its large Mormon
population. Reading and books get a lot of attention.  Note that Utah
is almost all public school education, it ranks 49th in private school
percentage (3% versus 9% nationally), so it's not because of the
Mormon equivalent of parochial schools.

Your arguments, with these additional fun facts, seem to imply that we
should be trying to emulate Utah.  They get a lot of bang for their
buck!  (I personally don't believe we should emulate Utah's rather
silly state ban law. Ability to ban books in grade school libraries is
necessary, but it should only be done at the local level, not any
higher level, IMO.)

Chris