Panel passes school funding increase

BOISE – Idaho’s public schools would get a 5.9 percent increase in state funding next year under a budget set by the Legislature’s joint budget committee Monday, but some timber-dependent counties could see school funding lag.

That’s because Congress hasn’t yet agreed on reauthorizing the Craig-Wyden legislation, which has sent substantial payments to Idaho counties and school districts in recent years to make up for lost federal timber receipts.

Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, tried hard Monday to add a backup plan to the state’s school budget to help those timber-dependent districts if Congress doesn’t come through. But only one other North Idaho member of the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, Sen. Joyce Broadsword, R-Sagle, backed Keough, while other North Idaho members opposed the move.

Broadsword said that in Shoshone County, “They are talking about a four-day school week with the loss of the Craig-Wyden money.”

Keough said her preference would be for federal forest officials to “return our national forest land to multiple-use management … which would generate money for everyone.”

But for now, some school districts are facing “a significant, significant hit,” Keough told the joint budget committee.

She proposed adding $3.5 million to the public schools budget for next year from a $100 million-plus school budget stabilization fund. That money would cover 70 percent of the Craig-Wyden losses Idaho school districts would otherwise see in the coming year.

Senate Education Committee Chairman John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, made that proposal earlier to the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee.

The panel’s four Democratic members, including Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow, included the proposal in their proposed budget for public schools, which also called for a 1 percent increase in discretionary funds for school districts and 5 percent, rather than 3 percent, for raises for teachers. But their proposal was defeated on a series of party-line votes.

Keough called for adding the Craig-Wyden funding to the Republican version of the school budget. That version called for 3 percent for salary increases and no increase in discretionary funds, but it added funding for several specific items requested by new state school Supt. Tom Luna, including textbooks and school supplies.

But her motion died on a 17-3 vote, with just Broadsword and Senate Finance Chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, joining Keough in backing it.

Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover, spoke out against the Craig-Wyden replacement money, saying the $3.5 million would help school districts but not counties, which also are losing money because Congress has not reauthorized the payment program. Plus, Eskridge said the move “takes away the responsibility of the federal government in terms of managing federal lands in a reasonable and prudent manner and puts the cost on the back of the Idaho taxpayers.”

He also said he worried that a state replacement-funding move would sap support from U.S. Sen. Larry Craig’s efforts to get funding reauthorized.

Keough countered that the state money would not be paid out if the federal funds are reauthorized, and school districts are required by law to set their budgets in May. Without any source to replace the funds, she said, they’ll be forced to ask local property taxpayers to approve tax increases.

Rep. Frank Henderson, R-Post Falls, also spoke out against the move, saying he thought the school budget stabilization fund should be reserved for state funding shortfalls, not federal ones.

The Republican plan without the Craig-Wyden replacement funds passed on a 15-5 vote, with Keough joining the panel’s four Democrats in opposing it.

The school budget overall totals $1.37 billion in state general funds, a 5.9 percent increase over this year’s budget. That’s slightly more than the 5.5 percent increase Gov. Butch Otter recommended and well under the 7 percent increase Luna had sought.

Yet Luna was happy, saying he got “99.9 percent” of what he wanted. That’s because the forecast of the number of students who will show up at Idaho’s public schools next year has been lowered by 50 support units, or 50 classrooms worth of students. That means the same money will go a little further, assuming that projection is correct.

Given that as a bottom line, budget writers were able to fund most of the line items Luna requested, including most of his “classroom enhancement package” to put extra money into specific items including textbook purchases, classroom supplies, and remediation for students who repeatedly fail the ISAT, the Idaho Standards Achievement Test. His plan to pay tuition for all high school juniors and seniors who pass the ISAT to take college classes while they’re still attending high school, however, was nixed.

Luna said if Congress doesn’t reauthorize the Craig-Wyden payments by the end of this year’s Idaho legislative session, he’ll push for 100 percent replacement of the funds to Idaho school districts from the state’s school budget stabilization fund. That would cost $5 million to $6 million.

“This was more of a timing issue,” Luna said. “The bottom line is these rural schools cannot go without these funds.”