Growth spurs school funds request

BOISE – Idaho’s public schools are seeing a surge in enrollment that means state lawmakers will have to ante up millions more this year or leave schools short this spring, legislative budget writers learned Thursday.

“This is an unprecedented level of growth we haven’t seen in over a decade,” state Department of Education finance expert Tim Hill told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee.

The schools are requesting an additional $5 million to avoid a shortfall this spring of $100 to $200 per classroom. That’s just the first budget decision lawmakers will have to make when it comes to public schools. They’ll also need to decide how to fund schools next year – a year in which Gov. Dirk Kempthorne is recommending the first-ever school budget over $1 billion.

State Superintendent of Schools Marilyn Howard made her budget pitch to lawmakers Thursday, calling for raises for school teachers, new investments in school facilities, academics and student fitness, and more.

Howard is requesting a 6 percent increase for public schools, to $1.047 billion in state general funds. Kempthorne’s proposal is for a 4.9 percent boost to $1.035 billion.

Members of the joint budget committee asked Howard what she thought of the Idaho Education Association’s proposed initiative to raise the state sales tax by a penny to provide increased funding to schools. Howard said if the measure gave schools additional funding beyond what they receive to cover the basics, “I think we could see our districts sing. I think we’d see wonderful things happen.”

The unexpected surge in school enrollment this year has added enough students to fill 270 classrooms – about 90 more than the state projected. Just over a third of that growth came in the Meridian School District, the state’s largest, and another third was at charter schools.

Rep. Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, said he’s working on a proposal to make up the shortfall.

Howard said a top priority next year is to increase teacher salaries. Lawmakers haven’t increased base salaries for school teachers in the past five years. Though teacher salaries are set separately by each school district, an increase in the base means the state sends more money to districts to help fund salaries.

Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, the Senate Education Committee chairman, noted that some teachers get raises when they move from one step to another in the salary schedule, for increased education or experience. Lawmakers have made funding available for those step increases, he noted.

But Hill explained that those step increases occur only for a minority of teachers; 55 percent are at a point in the salary schedule where they aren’t getting step increases. That occurs both at the bottom of the salary schedule, because the state’s starting teacher salary of $27,500 is much higher than the schedule’s initial levels, and at the top, for the most experienced teachers.

For next year, the governor is recommending a 2.5 percent increase in the base, plus a boost in the starting salary from $27,500 to $30,000, while Howard wants a 3 percent increase in the base. Kempthorne’s teacher pay proposal actually exceeds Howard’s in total dollars because of the hike in the minimum salary.

Howard told lawmakers, “I ask you to consider that salary improvement for our veteran teachers has not been funded for five years. Other state employees are set to share in a 3 percent salary increase beginning next month. If you want to send a message to our experienced and most highly skilled teachers that their services are appreciated, they cannot be treated with less consideration than other state workers.”

Howard urged the budget writers to fund both her and the governor’s teacher raise requests, or to approve the 3 percent and boost starting pay to $29,000, which would cost the same as the governor’s proposal.

“I can’t tell you what a pleasure it is to be discussing what level the increase might be, rather than arguing more basically for any increase at all,” Howard said.

Howard also called for increased funding for school construction and maintenance to meet the requirements of a Supreme Court order declaring the current system for funding school construction unconstitutional.

“The reality is that if the pie stays the same size, then cutting a bigger piece out of it for school building construction means less for all the other pieces,” she said. “It’s just that simple. So obviously, I’m suggesting that the pie has to be bigger if this new obligation is to be added without endangering the rest of a school system that is already straining to do all the things expected of it.”

She recommended dividing school building expenses into three categories: Safety concerns, which should be fully state-funded; ensuring adequate facilities for educational needs, which could be jointly funded by state and local sources; and “maximizing” facilities with state-of-the art technology, community resources and more, which could be funded by local property taxpayers.

Approaching the issue at those three levels, she said, “might help reduce some of this to manageable proportions.”

Howard also called for a grant program to school districts to increase physical activity for students; funding for high school reform efforts; and adding positions at the state Department of Education to focus on finance and on Indian education.

Lawmakers from both parties praised Howard, who was making her final budget presentation as state superintendent. She is retiring after she completes her second term, which runs through the end of 2006.