Views On State Legislation

The Meridian School District would have had to pick a different date for Tuesday's $10 million levy election under a reform bill that cleared a key hurdle Tuesday.

WHAT HAPPENED TUESDAY

House Bill 201 aims to boost voter turnout by limiting elections to just four dates a year. The House State Affairs Committee voted 14-4 vote to send the bill to the full House.

The bill's author, Rep. Dennis Lake, R-Blackfoot, said he's confident HB 201 will become law, ending a decades-long effort to raise voter turnout.

ELECTION DATES

Elections would be held the second Tuesday in March, third Tuesday in May, last Tuesday in August and first Tuesday in November.

Recall and runoff elections could occur on other dates.

School districts holding bond and levy elections in May and November would not have to pay to conduct those elections. But if they choose the March or August dates, they would bear the expense.

POLLING PLACES

The practice of holding school elections exclusively at schools would end. You would vote at your normal polling place.

WHO RUNS ELECTIONS

County clerks would run them beginning in 2011.

WHAT THEY COST

Each year, $3.1 million would be diverted from state sales taxes to pay for the elections. School boards say the bill would cost schools about $2 million a year to pay county clerks to conduct elections in March and August.

PARTISAN VS. NONPARTISAN ELECTIONS

Even years would be reserved for partisan races for federal, state and county office, statewide ballot questions, judicial races, levy and bond elections and some special district races. Odd-year elections would be held for nonpartisan city, special-district and school board races.

WHO BACKS THE BILL

Secretary of State Ben Ysursa and the Idaho Association of Counties support it.

Ysursa has backed consolidation since the 1980s because he says it will increase turnout.

"This is a good government bill," Ysursa said. "The stealth elections are what we don't want. Sometimes I think for the bond attorneys the perfect election is three show up - two vote yes and one votes no. That's not the way it ought to be."

WHO OPPOSES IT

The Idaho School Boards Association and Association of School Administrators say they're OK with the four dates, but testified against the bill on financial grounds.

School administrators say March elections are key to asking voters for supplemental levies, with about half of all school districts now running supplemental levy votes in the spring.

Dan Popkey

Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna traveled to Washington, D.C. this week to meet with Vice President Joe Biden, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and other key White House officials on the federal stimulus package. Superintendent Luna was one of about 35 chief state school officers to join the Vice President and Secretary at the White House on Wednesday afternoon.

After returning to Idaho late Wednesday night, Superintendent Luna held a series of conference calls with superintendents, school board trustees and other key educational stakeholder groups throughout Thursday and Friday to report new information on the federal stimulus package. Here is what Superintendent Luna learned:

· Idaho public schools will still have to reduce budgets: Superintendent Luna provided educational stakeholders with an overview of the federal stimulus funding for public education in Idaho. While the state will receive about $350 million in stimulus funding for education, only a portion will go toward stabilizing the public schools budget in FY2009, FY2010 and FY2011.

Here is how the funding breaks down for K-12 education in Idaho:
o   Budget stabilization: $200 million, including $166.1 million for K-12 budgets and $35.5 million for institutions of higher education
o   Government services: $44 million is set aside for the Governor to use at his discretion for "public safety and other government services." This funding can be used on any government services; it is not specific to education.
o   Title I-A: $34.9 million for educational programs and services in low-income schools
o   IDEA: $55.5 million for special education programs and services
o   McKinney-Vento: $191,000 for assistance to homeless students
o   Title II-D: $3.2 million for competitive educational technology grants to school districts
o   School lunch equipment: $469,000 in competitive grants to local school districts to purchase new equipment for food service programs

With the state facing an $85 million budget shortfall for K-12 in the current year and an estimated shortfall of between $109 million and $130 million shortfall for K-12 in FY2010, it is clear the federal stimulus funding will not be able to keep the public schools budgets whole across all three fiscal years.   Superintendent Luna will work with the Governor and Idaho Legislature on a plan for how the state should use the federal stimulus funding to offset budget cuts in the current year as well as FY2010 and FY2011.

· Stimulus funding should be used for innovation: Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan made it clear that the stimulus funding should not be used to supplement current programs. Instead, the funding should be used to implement one-time, innovative programs that will help boost student achievement over the next two years.

· Schools will have more flexibility with special education funding: U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said this week that states will have a considerable amount of flexibility for supplanting when it comes to the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) funds, which are used for special education. Secretary Duncan made it clear that local school districts have been spending local and state dollars for years to fill the hole that the federal government has not stepped up to fill by not fully funding IDEA at the 40 percent level required by the legislation. With the information we have today, it does not appear that the same flexibility will be granted for the Title I-A funding.

Audio recording is available: An audio recording of the initial conference call on Thursday morning is available online along with copies of the documents Superintendent Luna referenced during the call. To listen to the call and view the documents, please visit www.sde.idaho.gov and click on the "Public Schools Budget" page. The link the conference call audio is available on the left side of the page.

According to an article in Boise's Idaho Statesman, JESSIE L. BONNER of the Associated Press reports that the state Department of Education will likely postpone $21 million in repairs for Idaho public schools during the next fiscal year in an effort to cover funding shortfalls. The article states that matching funds the state gives to public schools to pay for maintenance, such as fixing leaky roofs and patching parking lots, could be eliminated as the department sketches out a revised budget to present to lawmakers. She goes on to say that public schools chief Tom Luna submitted his list of ideas for cutting costs to the State Board of Education on Monday, four days before he'll face lawmakers on the Joint Finance-Appropriations budget-writing committee.

Luna has told public school administrators to expect a $60 million to $80 million cut.

"To my knowledge, this would be the first time public schools will receive less money than they received in the previous year," Luna told The Associated Press. Basically, we would postpone some scheduled building maintenance for a year or two," he said.

In other areas included in agency's list of cost-cutting ideas is a proposal to save $6 million on transportation by eliminating bus routes that transport students, primarily in kindergarten, during the middle of the day. Instead, students would attend all-day classes every other day.

Luna repeated that "These are ideas, they are not recommendations."

With the fund drained to about $53 million, the governor has warned that he will not use the remaining reserves during the next fiscal year.

The list compiled by the state Department of Education includes a suggestion by the Idaho Education Association to save $28 million by keeping public schools open four days a week instead of five. Luna stated that that idea is not feasible because of the legislation it would require. Also, the department has since found the potential plan would result in considerably less savings than suggested.

Another suggestion to leave vacant teaching positions unfilled during the next school year could reportedly save $37 million, but would also mean more crowded classrooms according to Luna. The article notes that Idaho has 16,000 teachers and about 1,400 leave their positions each year for various reasons, such as retirement. Under the suggested proposal, the state Department of Education would only replace about 800 of those empty teaching positions.

Again, it is suggested that the reader contact his or her representatives using the links on this site to make your feelings known about the proposed cuts and to suggest possible alternatives. This is a time for activism, and your feedback is needed for our legislative leaders to make the most responsible decisions.

1/25/2009 - Spokesman-Review article details potential deep cuts for education...feed back needed

In this morning's Spokesman-Review, education writer Betsy Russell reports that Idaho legislators are considering their options concerning the proposed deep cuts that appear to be necessary for this year's education appropriation, and that some are turning to educators for advice. She reports that Senate Education Chairman John Goedde, R-Cd'A, distributed a list of millions in potential cuts to all state senators and that he urged them to show them to people in their districts and solicit their responses and other ideas.