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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Boise

Analysis: Ybarra’s budget will get a rewrite

The K-12 public schools budget that new state schools superintendent Sherri Ybarra sketched out this morning won’t be the budget that comes out of the 2015 Legislature, Idaho EdNews reporter Kevin Richert predicts in a new analysis here. Instead, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee is likely to develop a budget that differs significantly from Ybarra’s proposal.

Among the points Richert brings out in his analysis: Ybarra’s proposal to limit class sizes for kindergarten through the third grade isn’t in her budget proposal. It would need funding, and JFAC Co-Chair Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, doesn’t see it coming. And Ybarra’s proposal to start the new teacher “career ladder” pay plan as a pilot project for nine school districts and one charter school drew a tepid review from Sen. Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls, the Senate education chairman who also serves on JFAC; he said he’s concerned about a plan that would boost teacher pay in some districts but not others. “You have to have a degree of fairness in whatever you do,” he told Richert.



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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