[Vision2020] Vote on Education Cuts Monday

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (February 27, 2010) Spokesman-Review.

------------------------------------------------------

Vote on education cuts Monday
Stakeholders included in talks that propose 8.5 percent decline
Betsy Z. Russell, The Spokesman-Review

BOISE – As Idaho lawmakers gear up for their biggest budget decision of
the year on Monday – cuts to public schools – teachers are bracing for pay
cuts, Democrats are fixing for a fight and some conservatives on the
Legislature’s joint budget committee are looking at cutting even more.

Two late-night meetings in the past week have resulted in unanimous
agreement among four key education stakeholders on a blueprint for
slashing the state’s school funding by 8.5 percent next year, to make it
fit under the state’s much-lowered projections for next year’s tax
revenue.

“Everybody in my opinion gave,” said Senate Finance Chairman Dean Cameron,
R-Rupert. “All parties contributed to the overall process.”

The Idaho Education Association, representing the state’s teachers; the
Idaho Association of School Administrators; the Idaho School Boards
Association; and state Superintendent of Schools Tom Luna all participated
in the meetings with lawmakers, Cameron said, and if any one of those
players objected to a proposal, it was taken off the table.

House Appropriations Chairwoman Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, said: “I was there.
There were no votes. There were nods and groans and gnashing of teeth, but
there were no votes.”

The plan goes before the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Monday
morning, but members can offer their own alternatives, higher or lower.

“There’s a possibility that an even lower budget may come forward, is what
we’re hearing from some of the JFAC members,” said Rep. Bill Killen, the
House minority caucus chairman. Killen said Democrats, who hold just four
seats on the 20-member joint committee, could swing the decision. “Even
though we don’t have a lot of votes, we think there’ll be a strong split,”
he said.

While many JFAC members have praised the panel’s co-chairs, Bell and
Cameron, for inviting input from education stakeholders, Sen. Nicole
LeFavour, D-Boise, said by setting a budget number and then inviting the
education groups to give input on how to fit within it is “like bringing
someone in and telling them you’re going to cut off their fingers, and
you’re kindly asking them for input into how.”

She said, “I just want to express some sadness about that situation.”

Rep. Cliff Bayer, R-Boise, said Friday he’s undecided about whether to
propose a lower budget for schools on Monday. He said he’s still concerned
about state tax revenues falling even lower than the ultra-pessimistic
figures lawmakers have adopted, which are far below the state’s official
economic forecasts.

“Our safety nets are gone,” Bayer said. “We’re structurally
unstable. 
 With that, I’m very concerned.”

The co-chairs’ plan includes base salary reductions for teachers and
school classified staff next year of 4 percent, a pay cut for
administrators of 6.5 percent, and another move to cancel $10.13 million
in what otherwise would have been experience- and education-based salary
boosts for teachers.

-----------------

Rep. Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, and Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, co-chairs of
the Idaho Legislature’s joint budget committee, confer during a meeting of
committee on Friday.

http://tinyurl.com/JFAC-Chairs

------------------------------------------------------

And yet another legislative item to be recorded, spliced, and posted under
the "Moscow Cares" banner.

http://www.legislature.idaho.gov/sessioninfo/hagenda.htm#happ

Stay tuned, V-peeps.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown