March 3, 2010 in Idaho

Idaho lawmakers back school funding cuts

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Betsy Russell photo

State Superintendent of Schools Tom Luna talks to reporters after JFAC set a budget for public schools on Wednesday that includes big cuts next year. Luna said the budget will be “very, very difficult” for schools.
(Full-size photo)

BOISE - Idaho lawmakers have set a budget for public schools for next year that slashes 7.5 percent overall - and effectively cuts state funding for schools 8.4 percent - while cutting pay for all school employees and trimming an array of education initiatives.

“There’s plenty for all of us to dislike,” said Senate Finance Chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert.

The budget set by the Legislature’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee this morning matches a blueprint developed by a group of lawmakers and education stakeholders over the past few weeks - with one exception. At the last minute, on a 12-7 vote, the committee tacked on an extra clause to declare a financial emergency for every Idaho school district next year, enabling them to reopen negotiated teacher contracts and change pay, benefits or contract length.

Three Republicans - Cameron and Sens. Jim Hammond, R-Post Falls, and Joyce Broadsword, R-Sagle, joined with the committee’s four Democrats to oppose the motion, but it passed.

Said Sen. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, “It basically renders null and void contract salary provisions and the length of the contracts - in other words, teachers just won’t have contracts across our state any more. … We keep changing the rules of the game on them, and it’s not a game, it’s their life.”

The surprise move left the Idaho Education Association’s president, Sherri Wood, in tears after the JFAC meeting. The move, she said, was “wrong.”

State Superintendent of Schools Tom Luna said he was surprised by the move, and didn’t know about it before this morning’s meeting. He was among the group of education stakeholders who earlier agreed to the budget plan, which didn’t include that clause.

Luna said the budget will be “very, very difficult” for Idaho schools. “I don’t think any of us ever thought … that we would be dealing with this, that two years in a row we would be cutting education,” he said. “It’s a very difficult situation, but it’s all being driven by the economy. … I tell folks that there is a brighter day that’s not far off, and we will get through this.”

Minority Democrats on the panel offered an alternative, to add an extra $37.2 million to the school budget. They called for capturing that extra money by delaying implementation of a grocery tax credit increase, putting off election consolidation, delaying an insurance premium tax reduction and tapping $3 million from the general fund for additional tax auditors who would bring in $20 million more in already-due taxes next year, for a net increase of $17 million from that move.

“We’re offering ideas,” said Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow. Said Sen. Diane Bilyeu, D-Pocatello, “We are basically balancing our state budget on the backs of our kids, and that is wrong.”

But the move failed on a party-line vote, with only the four Democrats on the joint committee supporting it.

Hammond, a former longtime school principal, spoke emotionally about the proposal. “I’m not comfortable with this budget either. I don’t like it,” he said. “But I truly don’t see an alternative. As I return home each weekend and I talk to those businesses who have already laid off 30, 40 percent of their staff and are trying to stay alive, they beg me, ‘Don’t tax me any more, don’t raise my taxes.’ … So please don’t throw at me that we haven’t considered that alternative - we have.”

The budget still needs approval from the full House and Senate and the governor’s signature to take effect, but budgets rarely are changed after they’re set by the joint committee. No school budget has been defeated in the House or Senate in at least the past 25 years.

The budget calls for pay cuts for teachers and classified employees of school districts next year of 4 percent, 6.5 percent pay cuts for administrators, and canceling $10.13 million in what otherwise would have been raises earned by educators for additional education or experience.

Three comments on this story so far. Add yours!

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  slapshotjr on March 03 at 1:08 p.m.

  W O W…now heres a story about idaho making more education cut backs..but another story on here saying idaho is gonna pay kids to graduate early…man…so does that mean they are gonna cut jobs, take that money and give it to kids who will graduate early…BRAVO…BRAVO…

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  cawilkesjr on March 03 at 3:23 p.m.

  One gets the impression that the legislative leaders in Idaho are soon going to achieve their goal of simply having the state government go out of business…cutting all essential services and privatizing those they can’t simply shut down. Tough times…

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  HarlanColt on March 04 at 3:55 p.m.

  Well guess what… all that tossing money around in social welfare programs has got to come from somewhere. You get in office and spend other people’s money like drunken sailors, then when the effects of wanton-wreckless behavior comes to roost, you whine and cry litke little babies. And guess what else, teachers are only feeling 8% of what millions in the private sector are living with at 100%. You wanna cry about an 8% cut - try NO JOB AT ALL. Maybe if we stopped sending billions of $$ in debt from our children’s future to foreign countries we wouldn’t have to cut anything at all.