Presenters: Tammy Reque, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Economics
Authors: Tammy Reque, Wyatt R. Hudgens
Faculty Advisor: Thomas Maloney, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Economics
Institution: University of Utah
Every child deserves the opportunity to reach his or her full potential. The investments we make in our children today have a lasting impact on economic growth and prosperity. The purpose of our research is to provide economic data and analysis to advance public policies and investments that benefit children from birth to age 17 in the state of Utah. We worked in partnership with the non-profit organization Voices for Utah Children to create the 2020 Utah Children’s Budget Report, examining both federal and state investment in children from FY2008 to FY2020 in order to compare figures over time. Figures were adjusted for inflation using the CPI-U measure from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to establish more accurate trends. The report is divided into seven categories: K-12 Education, Health Care, Food and Nutrition, Early Childhood Education, Child Welfare, Juvenile Justice and Income Support. We then added up the revenues in each of these areas from the data collected from the Compendium of Budget Information (COBI), Utah Department of Health and Utah State Office of Education, separating state from federal dollars. At this point in the research we are still collecting and organizing data, but we anticipate to see an increase in investment overall and on a per-child basis, especially with the increase in federal funding allocations through the CARES Act in 2020. Our goal is that the data and conclusions will assist policymakers in setting their priorities and making funding decisions where it will positively impact children the most.