Schools key to budget solutions

It's too early to pick apart or endorse specific components of Tom Luna's proposed budget for Idaho public schools in the 2010-2011 fiscal year. Legislators will be doing that in the weeks ahead.

But it's not too soon to embrace the key goal and best route to get there, as visualized by the state's superintendent of public instruction.

In a telephone discussion with The Press editorial board on Wednesday, Luna emphasized the importance of maintaining the momentum Idaho schools have demonstrated over the past two years. In that time, Idaho has led the nation in making the greatest strides in national testing.

But to keep that going, Luna talked about the need for all "adults" - teachers, administrators, staff, school patrons - to "sacrifice a little bit more for a little bit longer."

The greatest sacrifice in his proposed budget, or at least the part that will likely create the most anxiety, is a 3.74 percent cut to the almost $1 billion the state pays for educators' salaries and benefits.

With legislative approval, Luna's department can make that reduced allocation to school districts, but it is then up to districts to determine how the money would be spent. It's conceivable some districts would cut teaching positions to make up the difference - an approach Luna does not recommend and this newspaper's editorial board adamantly opposes. Cutting teachers' jobs, as California and Hawaii are doing by the thousands, would force larger class sizes and, in our view, throttle the positive momentum our public schools have built.

The route to maintaining that momentum is paved with student-teacher contact time.

In Idaho, a minimum of 990 hours of student-teacher contact time is required. That benchmark would need to be maintained in spite of another element of sacrifice included in Luna's proposed budget: He's recommending that districts no longer be funded for a full day's worth of instruction when only half-day classes are held.

One way to fill that gap would be slightly extending the school day. It wouldn't take much, but it would represent change - change for educators and for parents. Luna points out that increasing the school day by a mere five minutes would add two full days of student-teacher contact time; 15 minutes would equate to six full days of contact time.

Combined with cuts to pay and benefits, even a slightly longer work day might be a hard sell to the teachers union. Patrons can empathize with school employees being asked to work longer for less pay because that is exactly what many patrons have been doing during this recession.

Maintaining status quo is not an option. Sen. Brent Hill recently put the state's budget plight into crystal clear perspective. Sen. Hill wrote:

"Here are the facts: 94% of Idaho's General Fund goes to what are called the 'Big Three:' 9% to Public Safety, 20% to Health and Welfare, and 65% to education. That leaves only 6% to run all the rest of government, including state parks, water resources, agriculture, economic development, the labor department, etc.

"So, when state revenues tumble 20%, like they have over the past two years, it doesn't take a CPA to understand that we could completely eliminate all of state government, except the 'Big Three,' and still not have enough money to balance the budget."

Hill, himself a CPA, concludes that only two options are on the table: Increasing taxes significantly or tackling the Big Three. We don't think you need to be an A student to figure out the better option.