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Editorial: Ybarra’s 2016 budget a match for Idaho schools’ needs

Sun., Sept. 6, 2015

Sherri Ybarra had an inauspicious debut as Idaho’s public schools chief. Her proposed education budget last year ended up being lower than the amount the governor proposed and the Legislature adopted. Her presentation of that request to lawmakers was awkwardly brief.

But she seems to have rebounded with a more robust proposal after spending time listening to the needs of educators around the state.

As a result, she is seeking about $110 million more than was budgeted last year, or a 7.5 percent increase. The request would return the operational budget to its 2009 level, finally.

Importantly, her plans are detailed and her priorities seem to be in the right place.

Last year, she told inquiring lawmakers that she wanted to “build the policy around the funding.” In other words, she couldn’t go into specifics until she discovered how much money they would allocate.

This time, she embarked on a lengthy listening tour, engaged key education stakeholders and spent months with staff crafting the proposal. That’s how the process is supposed to work. Now when legislators question her, she’ll have the answers.

Idaho has struggled to keep good teachers because it hasn’t been able to offer competitive wages. Ybarra wants $98.1 million to fund the “career ladder,” which is the state’s five-year plan to boost teacher pay. That’s on top of the $33 million the Legislature kicked in last year.

This cash infusion should send a signal that Idaho has returned to focusing on the most important factor in delivering a high-quality education: teachers. That signal needs to be strong and sustained after the state’s tumultuous episode of turning to online learning and technology and slashing budgets just about everywhere else.

House Speaker Scott Bedke has called the teacher-pay plan “a turning point for the education system here in the state.” Gov. Butch Otter agrees. And now Ybarra has wisely followed up with a push to continue that effort.

Hopefully, all Idaho’s leaders understand that this will take a sustained effort, because the state fell so far behind after the recession. Even with last year’s funding increase, Idaho finds itself in last place nationally in per-pupil funding, according to an analysis by the Idaho Statesman.

In inflation-adjusted dollars, the state is still 18.6 percent behind the 2006-07 school year.

On Wednesday, Ybarra told Idaho Education News, “One of the bright spots, really, was that operational funding increase.” She called it “a step in the right direction.”

And it is, but it’s going to be a long journey.

The good news is that Ybarra has done her homework and gotten off to a good start the second time around.