School Building Study Questioned Legislators Offer Criticism Of Panel Formed By Governor

Legislative budget writers had plenty of questions Monday about an updated study of Idaho’s school construction needs developed by a committee over the summer.

The study found a $250 million backlog of building needs, including up to $50 million in critical safety problems. The committee, put together by Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, focused on the list of safety needs, which it pared back from the list provided to it by school districts.

Sen. Marguerite McLaughlin, D-Orofino, said she thought that was too narrow a way to look at Idaho’s schoolhouse needs.

“You could have half of a school building that’s off-limits to students, and you’ve taken care of the health and safety hazard, but you still have a building that’s inadequate,” she said.

Others questioned why a consultant determined there was no particular factor that seemed to make one district more likely to pass school bonds than another.

“I represent a school district that tried for 20 years to pass a bond, and I know that there are some significant differences,” said Sen. Stan Hawkins, R-Ucon. “I know of counties in the state that have doubledigit unemployment.”

Rep. Randy Hansen, R-Twin Falls, questioned why the committee “whittled down” the superintendents’ list of safety problems.

And Sen. Cecil Ingram, R-Boise, said he thought the study showed a need to consolidate more school districts. “We’re spending an awful lot of money on administration. I think that money could be routed into the building needs that we have.”

Others focused on the study’s finding that close to $600 million has been spent to improve Idaho schools since 1993, including bonds, facility levies and lottery proceeds. A more extensive state study completed in 1993 found a $700 million backlog in school construction in Idaho.

“The school districts have been doing so well over the past six years, taking care of their needs,” said Sen. Robert Lee, R-Rexburg.

But Tom Morley, education adviser to Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, warned, “You can’t take $700 million, throw in this and make a subtraction, because there’s been so much growth.”

Rich Bauscher, a consultant who worked on both the 1993 and 1999 studies, said, “A lot of that ($600 million) could be current maintenance. A lot of money every year goes to that.”

The Legislature’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee made no decisions Monday on school construction. But the committee is the group that later will consider Kempthorne’s proposal for a $50 million interest-free loan program to help school districts fix critical safety problems in their schoolhouses.

Kempthorne unveiled the plan at the opening of the legislative session last week, even though his own study committee recommended no state funding to help school districts with buildings, even in emergencies.

Idaho leaves building costs to local districts, where two-thirds of voters must agree to a property tax increase in order to build a school. As the only state with both the two-thirds rule and no state funding for schoolhouses, Idaho is the toughest state in the nation in which to build a school.

A lawsuit filed by a group of school districts against the state, challenging that system as unconstitutional, goes to trial this spring.