State school official: Teachers need to sacrifice some more

BOISE - A state Board of Education member on Thursday lamented staffing cuts at his Boise plumbing business while making the case for teachers to take a bigger hit in public schools chief Tom Luna's budget proposal for next year.

DeBest Plumbing and Mechanical owner Milford Terrell told fellow board members, including Luna, that he has laid off 100 workers in the past year and cut wages by 10 percent to 15 percent.

Luna's plan to absorb a possible $135 million loss in overall funding for Idaho's K-12 system in the next fiscal year includes a nearly 6 percent reduction in salaries and state-paid benefits, among several other areas.

"I don't understand why they're not taking the same hit I'm taking," Terrell said.

While Terrell argued educators should experience a sacrifice similar to employees in the private sector during the financial crisis, Luna stressed that deeper cuts in teacher pay would ultimately hurt students.

"I'm very concerned about cutting teacher pay to the point that it has a negative affect on student-teacher contact hours," Luna said.

But heftier cuts may already be in store for Idaho teachers.

Legislative budget leaders introduced a plan this week that would avoid harming public schools this fiscal year, but make deeper cuts next fiscal year. Public schools fearing a midyear holdback to their current budgets would use remaining federal stimulus funding and state reserves to avoid trimming teacher salaries mid-contract.

When July 1 comes, however, they would lose at least $86 million from their base funding, not the $14.3 million loss in general funds that the governor recommended in his budget proposal for the next fiscal year.

It was based on the governor's budget in January that Luna created plans to absorb a $135 million cut, factoring in the loss of one-time federal stimulus money and decreases in state dedicated funds, such as cigarette and lottery taxes.

Luna's plan would tap $22 million from the state's endowment reserves, use about $5.5 million in carry-over balances from funds for driver education and the safe and drug-free schools program, and make $25.2 million in strategic cuts, including the elimination of an early retirement program and reimbursements to schools for field trips.

If further reductions are necessary, they would be carried out with an across-the-board 5.97 percent reduction in several areas, including salaries and state-paid benefits.

Lawmakers estimated the total damage would be more like $160 million with shortfalls in state revenues.

The state Department of Education is waiting for more reliable numbers from the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, which is scheduled to set the public schools budget March 1, said agency spokeswoman Melissa McGrath.

"The $135 million is the only hard number we have right now," McGrath said.