throwing in the eraser

This lede is so good I just have to include it:

It could be any fourth-grade classroom.
During a few minutes of free time Friday, one of Jim Martin's students drew flowers and caricatures on the dry erase board, while another munched on an apple as she worked on the latest Harry Potter puzzle.
Across the room, a group crowded on the floor around a "Taboo" game board, blurting out words they hoped matched the one on the secret card held by a classmate.
But it's not just any fourth-grade classroom. There are more brown faces than white, more poverty than privilege.
And if state and national statistics hold true, a good many of Martin's students at Riley Elementary will fall so far behind by the time they reach high school that they risk failing state tests required for graduation.

Utah's public schools are terrible, we don't have enough paper and books for the students, let alone small class sizes, modern facilities, and the like.

It is hard to point the blame because it is simple demographic problem: As of the 200 census, 32.3% of the state's population is under 18, compared to 25.7% nationally. There are lots of young children in this state because LDS families are tend to be large. The per capita funding of education in this state is always towards the bottom; In 1994, New Jersey (#1) spent twice as much as Utah (#46) per capita. And this was before the landmark case which mandated more funding and better schools for New Jersey's minority populations.

Another problem is that most education funding, as Steve Urquart points out, is derived from property taxes, and 66% of the state is owned by the Federal Government in form of National Forests, BLM lands, National Parks and National Monuments like Clinton's infamous Grand Staircase-Escalante.

Utah could improve things by A) raising taxes directly or B) indirectly raising taxes by using gimmics like a state lottery as Massachusetts and North Carolina have done/thought about doing. Of course, since a state lottery is a public endorsement of gambling, I doubt this is an option even on the table. Although more Utahns pay lotto tickets than Idahoans do for their lottery. Personally I dislike option B for reasons other than morals as well. If you are going to tax people, be up front about it. Don't make it this essentially poor tax. Because we all know Jon Huntsman isn't going to waste his billions on tickets.

The whole thing is a catch-22: until we have a better tax base, we can't have better schools. But until we have better schools, we won't get enough rich people moving in to raise the tax base. Does anyone have any ideas?