Town hall addresses education

COEUR d'ALENE - Spending cuts to state public education funding in 2011 and concerns about educator contracts brought about 100 people - many of them teachers - out for a special town hall meeting Saturday at the Coeur d'Alene Public Library.

Five local state legislators made brief comments to start the meeting and answered questions from the audience, where red Idaho Education Association lanyards were handed out. The association is a teacher organization.

"When I got into education I knew I would become a public servant," said Mary Lee Ruch, a sixth-grade teacher at Woodland Middle School, in Coeur d'Alene. "But this legislation that is coming to your desks will turn me into a public slave. And I don't want to be a public slave. Give me respect."

Earlier this week the Legislature's Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee set a budget that lops off 7.5 percent from next year's budget. The committee also decided to enable school districts to reopen teacher contracts.

Brian Smith, a social studies teacher at Sandpoint High School, said there is already legislation in place that gives schools the ability to reduce pay and benefits.

"Why is this bill necessary?" he asked. "There are some school districts that have reserve funds that are large. They don't need to make cuts, they have money that they can expend."

To take effect, the budget needs the approval of the full House and Senate and the signature of Gov. Butch Otter.

"We are in unprecedented times," said Idaho state Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d'Alene. "For some of us this is the worst we've seen in our lifetimes."

More bleak news broke late this week: Idaho is way behind its tax revenue forecast since December. Revenue was short more than $15 million of February's targets, and short a combined $41 million since December.

Michael Emory, also of Woodland Middle School, who teaches eighth grade earth sciences, said in the last 10 years he has seen about half or more of his budget cut.

"I run sort of a lab-based classroom," Emory said. "I think science is going to be a key for our state to grow revenue. It's going to be key for industry."

Next year he said he has $200 for classroom supplies. He usually spends about $300 to $400 out of his own pocket for additional supplies.

"To me it's a moral obligation for these kids coming up to give them the opportunity to be successful in the world they are going to be going into," Emory said.

Other teachers voiced similar concerns.

Some in the audience said the state spends a lot on each student compared to other countries, while Idaho has lower test scores.

Some said legislators need to work harder to find additional revenue, instead of focusing too much on cuts. One teacher suggested raising taxes by about 1 percent, to some applause, though legislators said that wouldn't amount to enough.

Another audience member said schools should be forced to look closer at how they are spending money.

State Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Post Falls, said, "What we are really focused on, after we recognized what kind of funds we were going to be able to appropriate, was to give the districts as much flexibility as possible" on spending.

Hammond, who is on the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, said districts in the past have received a certain amount of funding for transportation, children's programs, administrator pay, teacher pay and other programs. He said those funds can't be moved from one program to another.

Hammond said legislators moved funds around so districts will have $63 million in extra discretionary funds. In the economic situation the state is in it's important to give districts that flexibility.

"We don't want to raise class sizes," Hammond said.

Also, he said, teachers "are not going to teach less effectively just because the financing has changed. Teachers will do the best they can with what they've got."

State Rep. George Sayler, D-Coeur d'Alene, said legislators must work harder to identify other revenue sources, and they need to be more focused on long-term goals. He said as funding erodes, the state's students won't be able to compete as well.

The town hall meeting was co-sponsored by the Panhandle Coalition and the city of Coeur d'Alene. State Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d'Alene, and Rep. Frank Henderson, R-Post Falls, also participated in the meeting.