School funding a question of ‘how much and when’

Both competing sets of motions on the public schools budget being considered in JFAC this morning include funding for additional math and science teachers, at $4.8 million; both include restoring the 1.67 percent cut from teacher and administrator salary funds by the voter-rejected “Students Come First” laws; and both include $3.75 million for professional development to implement Idaho’s new Common Core standards for what children should learn each year in school. Both also fund technology from the $33.9 million that had earlier been set aside for possible school reforms; the Thompson/Cameron motions spend about $3 million more on technology, to cover pilot projects in school districts. Those motions set technology funding for schools next year at $13.4 million; the Mortimer/Bayer motions set it at $10.4 million.

Sen. Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls, said, “It is not that I do not believe that our instructional staff and educational professionals do not deserve compensation. In fact I do. … The discussion here is primarily how much and when.”