Keough: Help Poor School Districts First Places With Limited Tax Bases Would Share $15 Million Fund
Disadvantaged school districts would get state help in repairing crumbling buildings under legislation proposed by Sen. Shawn Keough.
The $15 million fund would be for districts with limited tax bases and other economic factors that work against them. The money would come from anticipated growth in state sales tax revenues.
“If we look at these things, disadvantaged areas pop up quickly,” said Keough, R-Sandpoint. “It’s the Legislature’s responsibility to ensure that we have sound public schools, and there is a moral obligation to where there are financial barriers and hardship.”
Keough’s bill - pitched to the Senate Education Committee on Friday - would route the money directly to the troubled school districts for the next four years, starting in 2001.
School districts would have to publish detailed information about safety problems at schools in the local newspaper. Keough also introduced a second bill containing only that provision.
“I realized that I’m privy to information that school patrons don’t have,” Keough said. “I don’t think the average man on the street realizes the seriousness of the situation.”
By printing information about the schools in newspapers, Keough hopes to motivate members of the community and put pressure on local school boards to raise funds to fix the problems.
“This is a tremendous idea,” said Senate Education Chairman Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow. “It would put pressure on the Legislature, too.”
Sen Darrel Deide, R-Caldwell, agreed, saying, “This is the hammer required to get people’s attention on school facility needs.’
Schroeder brought out two plans of his own Friday to address school building problems. One would match 20 percent of existing or new school bonds that districts pass, at a cost to the state of $15 million a year. The second is a similar plan with a lower, $6 million price tag.
“These are ideas that almost made it (in past years),” Schroeder said. “Some people say that if we’d gotten these through we wouldn’t be in the trouble we’re in. I tend to agree.”
The committee is expecting a lot of proposals about school facilities; so many that Schroeder has called for a day in the committee that would be devoted solely to the topic.
“There are a lot of ideas floating around and we’re going to throw them all on the table,” Schroeder said. “We’ll have a school facilities meeting to consider these ideas and open them up for public hearing.”
Idaho faces a trial next month in a lawsuit filed by a group of school districts, charging the Legislature has failed in its constitutional duty to provide for schools.
Fourth District Judge Deborah Bail, in scheduling the trial, said she was willing to give lawmakers one last shot at fixing the problem and making the lawsuit go away.
“At this point in time, we have numerous ideas to discuss,” said Sen. Jack Riggs, R-Coeur d’Alene. “We need to land on one. It’s not an option to leave without something this year.”