Schools budget cut by $47M
BOISE - Public schools will take a nearly $50 million hit in total funding next year and the state will chip in less funding per student under a budget set by lawmakers Monday.
The spending plan for public education in the next fiscal year, which starts July 1, does not include the extra money schools got from the state land endowment reserve this year. The one-time federal stimulus money that propped up previous school budgets is also gone.
"The school districts will feel a $47 million reduction," said Republican Sen. Dean Cameron, co-chair of the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee.
That's smaller than the $62 million cut some had feared, and the reduction is smaller still when accounting for Idaho's share of the federal funding Congress set aside last year to preserve teaching jobs. Idaho collected roughly $51 million in jobs funding, but how schools have spent the money - and how much they have left - will vary from district to district.
"Some of them used their jobs money last year, some of them wisely saved the jobs money to help them this year," Cameron said.
The $1.56 billion public schools budget includes more than $1.2 billion, or roughly half, of Idaho's state general funding for the next fiscal year. While total funding in the budget is poised to decline, state support for schools is slated to increase with a plan to increase tax collections.
The budget includes a $9.3 million boost in state general funds, following lawmaker approval last week of additional funding to increase staffing at the State Tax Commission. The move is expected to rein in more than $19 million in additional tax revenue next year.
Lawmakers are now allocating a bulk of the anticipated revenue growth to increase state support for public schools, which had to absorb a $128 million cut this year.
The 2012 public schools budget still has to clear the full House and Senate.
The plan reflects education reforms authored by schools chief Tom Luna, with backing from Republican Gov. Butch Otter. The governor has already signed two parts of the plan, phasing out tenure for new educators and restricting collective bargaining while introducing teacher pay-for-performance.
The third - and largest - piece of the reform package passed the Idaho Senate last week and was sent to the House for debate.
That legislation would shift money from funding for teacher salaries to pay for the new technology upgrades and the new merit pay system. That would start in fiscal year 2012, when the state would redirect $14.7 million from Idaho's salary-based apportionment to other parts of the education budget.
School trustees, administrators and the statewide teachers union are opposed to how the legislation will fund new technology upgrades in the classroom. But Luna contends his plan will allow Idaho to educate more students "at a higher level with limited resources."
In a statement Monday, Luna lauded lawmakers for their work on the public schools budget.
"No one is pleased with having to reduce funding for Idaho's schools a third year in a row," Luna said. "But considering the much deeper cuts that were anticipated at the beginning of January, I must give credit to Idaho's legislators and the governor for working with me on this budget."