SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s on the honor roll with two new rankings for its education system.
A WalletHub report released on Monday ranks Utah’s education system as number four in the country.
Additionally, a recent report in U.S. News and World Report ranks Utah as number two in the nation.
Jeff Haney with the Canyons School District thinks we can credit increasing pay for teachers.
“What’s happening in Canyons School District, and I think in many parts of the state, is that since 2019, salaries for teachers have gone up considerably,” he said.
He said their teachers can thank the community who’s chosen to invest heavily in teacher compensation.
“If you are a brand new teacher, right out of school, you can be earning more than $60,000 a year,” he said.
According to Haney, Canyons School District has increased pay for its teachers by 23% “in the past several years.”
How Utah education is “working-mom friendly”
Another factor WalletHub based its rankings on “working-mom friendliness.”
“[Canyon School District believes] that we have put into place communication strategies and tools for us to be able to communicate with parents about what’s happening academically, and also if something is happening in terms of an emergency,” Haney said.
Haney said one of the keys to being working-mom friendly is good communication.
“We can immediately communicate with parents in an emergency,” he said. “They can get a text message … a robocall … [or] they can get an email.”
The district uses ParentSquare. Haney said it’s a program to contact parents that is friendly to all kinds of families.
“ParentSquare will translate a message while it’s in transit,” he said. “So, if you have a mom who speaks Spanish better than she speaks English… We can send a message in English. When she gets the text message, it gets to her in Spanish. She can respond in Spanish and when it comes back to the teacher or the administrator it arrives in English. It translates as it goes.”
With ParentSquare, Haney said all of the families within the Canyons School District can feel like they’re caught up on what’s happening at school.
Don Brinkerhoff is a reporter and producer for KSL NewsRadio.