Battle Lines Drawn Over School Aid State Superintendent Pushes For Salary Hikes, But Governor Claims Package Is Too Expensive

State Schools Superintendent Marilyn Howard unveiled an $882.6 million state aid proposal for public schools on Thursday that she says will boost salaries enough to attract and retain the best teachers.

But the budget met with immediate disapproval from Gov. Dirk Kempthorne.

“In the competitive world we have today and the demands we’re placing on students to learn, we have to maintain strong salaries,” Howard told the annual gathering of Idaho’s school superintendents.

But Kempthorne made clear to the superintendents later in the day that funneling another $61.5 million into public education for the 2000-2001 school year was not in the cards.

“I have immense respect for Marilyn Howard, and it’s important that she be an advocate for schools,” the Republican governor said. “We’re going to continue to make great efforts with regard to education, but I have to be realistic about the revenues.”

Although revenue growth during the 1998-1999 budget year was markedly higher than analysts expected, policy makers have been leery of pushing growth projections much beyond 4 percent for fear the extended economic expansion will run its course. And at that level a larger share of general tax receipts would have to be earmarked for education than has been traditional. Half of all general tax receipts currently go to public schools.

Howard’s budget proposal, to be presented to the state Board of Education later this summer, more than doubles the $24.7 million increase in state aid Idaho’s 113 school districts are receiving in the coming school year. She had unsuccessfully pushed for a $48 million boost in state aid.

The bulk of the extra cash in the new budget plan - $32.3 million - is earmarked for increasing the share of public education salaries the state underwrites. The 5.2 percent increase for teachers, which raises the state-covered base pay for a beginning teacher by $1,085 to $22,000 a year, compares to the 3 percent increase in the state share authorized for the 1999-2000 school year.

While Idaho’s teacher salaries have always ranked near the bottom regionally and nationally, selling a 5 percent increase could be difficult when Kempthorne is likely to recommend only a 3 percent pay hike for state workers.

But Howard, a Democrat, points out that salaries are becoming a critical factor in recruiting teachers, particularly in more rural districts, as states across America boost their compensation packages.

“The task is not getting even but not falling farther behind,” she said, citing a tightening pool of special education, mathematics and science teachers.

In speaking to the superintendents, Kempthorne himself emphasized the importance of mathematics and science education in public schools. He said students attracted to those fields early will go on to advanced education that will help ease a shortage of engineers needed by companies like Micron Technology Inc.

Kempthorne said predictions of a big state surplus this year are unlikely to come true, because the state will need to spend $13 million to make up shortfalls in Medicaid, $5 million to house additional prison inmates, $6 million to make up a shortfall in a state insurance refund account and millions more to suppress wildfires.

“I’m not telling you this to be a wet blanket,” he said.

Staff writer Betsy Russell contributed to this report.