<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Courtesy of Idaho Ed News at:</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><a href="http://www.idahoednews.org/news/state-board-members-rip-lunas-budget-proposal/">http://www.idahoednews.org/news/state-board-members-rip-lunas-budget-proposal/</a></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"> </span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">---------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><h1 class="singlePageTitle" style="margin: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 4px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 30px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.1em; font-family: arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px;">State Board members rip Luna’s K-12 budget</h1><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">State Board of Education member Bill Goesling ripped into Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna’s budget proposal on Thursday, calling the </span><a href="http://www.idahoednews.org/news/luna-calls-for-5-9-percent-budget-increase/" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">5.9 percent spending increase</a><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"> </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">“unacceptable.”</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">“I find this to be just an unacceptable increase in numbers,” Goesling said during the board’s meeting in Lewiston. “I think at some point the board is going to have stand up and say, ‘This is not going to work for higher education.’”</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Goesling said an increase in public school funding would come at the expense of Idaho’s colleges and universities.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Luna’s K-12 budget proposal does not factor in higher education spending, and it does not call for any cuts in any other budgets.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Goesling suggested board members — who are appointed by Gov. Butch Otter — make a separate recommendation to the governor.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Although he was perhaps the most vocal critic of Luna’s proposed budget, Goesling was not alone.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“The fact is these numbers are staggering when you look at where we are going and what we are doing and who is going to be robbed in this whole spectrum of moneys,” said board member Milford Terrell. Terrell said he understands public schools and universities are both seeking a restoration of Great Recession-era budget cuts.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The debate flared up as Luna Deputy Chief of Staff Jason Hancock presented an overview of the budget proposal.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The proposal calls for a $77 million increase in public school funding. Luna built his budget around several recommendations from Otter’s Task Force For Improving Education, including a five-year proposal to reverse cuts in K-12 operational funding, and a transformation of Idaho’s teacher pay model.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font color="#000000"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://www.idahoednews.org/news/k-12-task-force-endorses-21-proposals/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Those recommendations were backed</a> unanimously by the <a href="http://www.idahoednews.org/news/governor-names-his-task-force/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">31-member task force</a> — which included four members of the State Board, but not Goesling or Terrell.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Although the funding debate was passionate, it may have been somewhat of an academic exercise. The State Board does not appropriate funds – that task falls to lawmakers and Otter.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Westerberg stood behind the task force’s work while acknowledging the “sticker shock” reaction to the budget.</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">State board member Richard Westerberg – the task force’s chairman – appeared to sense the tension in the room Thursday. On at least two occasions, he jokingly asked if members could take an early break for lunch and set the discussion aside until later.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I don’t think anyone on the board or in the room would argue that we have adequately funded K-12 education,” Westerberg said.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Even before Thursday, the budget proposal has drawn mixed reviews.</span></p><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: square inside;"><li style="text-indent: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 19px; padding: 2px 0px 2px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">When Luna unveiled his proposal on Oct. 1, Sen. Steven Thayn, R-Emmett, praised Luna for incorporating the task force’s recommendation into the budget. But Thayn, who sits on the Senate’s budget-writing and education committees, added: <a href="http://www.idahoednews.org/news/luna-calls-for-5-9-percent-budget-increase/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“I don’t think we’re going to have quite that much money over the next five years to do all of this.”</a></span></li><li style="text-indent: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 19px; padding: 2px 0px 2px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Senate Education Committee Chairman John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, also applauded Luna’s attention to the task force. But Goedde told Idaho Education News the spending increase is <a href="http://www.idahoednews.org/news/lawmakers-start-scrutinizing-luna-budget/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“a stretch.”</a></span></li><li style="text-indent: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 19px; padding: 2px 0px 2px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Some district superintendents have called for an <a href="http://www.idahoednews.org/news/superintendents-call-for-even-more-money/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">even bigger funding increase</a>, saying the state isn’t working quickly enough to reverse <a href="http://www.idahoednews.org/news/idaho-k-12-cuts-among-steepest-in-nation/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">some of the steepest K-12 budget cuts in the nation</a>.</span></li><li style="text-indent: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 19px; padding: 2px 0px 2px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And last week, <a href="http://www.idahoednews.org/news/andrus-wins-award-comes-out-punching/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">former Gov. Cecil Andrus said it was time for Idahoans “to put our money where our mouth is”</a> if education is truly a top priority.</span></li></ul></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">---------------------------------<br><br><div>Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</div><div><br></div><div>"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</div><div><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div><div> </div><div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>