Batt: School Funding To Increase Tells School Superintendents Of 7.5 Percent Aid Hike Next Year

Gov. Phil Batt on Wednesday signaled the likelihood that he will propose a 7.5 percent increase in state aid to public education for the 1996-1997 school year.

But even though that would be a slightly larger increase than public schools received in the current budget, the Idaho School Superintendents Association expressed hope that the state’s cash contribution to education would be even higher.

In an address to superintendents and other educators, Batt said he remained concerned that the economy continues generating the taxes necessary to support social programs, particularly education.

And although he was confident the economy would continue expanding, albeit more slowly than in the past, Batt said he did not believe there would be the kind of cash surplus that has permitted the financing of new government initiatives in the past.

“If we can maintain a 7.5 percent increase overall, we would all be happy,” he said. “I can’t see any reason why that wouldn’t take place. But I’m making no promises.”

State aid for the 1995-1996 school year was increased just over 7 percent to the $664 million Batt had recommended in the first budget of his new administration.

An increase of 7.5 percent for the following school year would push the aid total to between $706 million and $714 million depending on what base the administration starts the calculation with.

Bob Jones, president of the superintendents association and superintendent of the Lakeland School District, said it was difficult to determine just what kind of impact that increase would have on public education without the details of how portions of it would be earmarked.

But, Jones said, “my feeling is it’s maybe a little on the slim side.

“My hope would be that the economy would do well enough that the governor and the Legislature would be able to go a little more than that,” he said. “But we’ll see.”

The state provides over 75 percent of the cash to finance public education, but the school districts could gain something of a windfall from their basic local property tax levies because of skyrocketing property assessments. Reports from many areas of the state indicate double digit percentage increases in valuation.

While other local governments will be required to scale back their levies to offset huge increases in assessments, school districts are allowed to continue collecting the basic $3 per $1,000 of property value and the state will kick in the equivalent of a fourth dollar.

Batt also issued a mild attack on both school accreditation and tenure for teachers. He emphasized that he had no proposals to do away with either - in fact was not advocating the abolition of either. But he said it appears that in some cases both have interfered with efforts at education reform.

There should be some modification of each, he said, to make sure neither is a stumbling block to change.