School districts have tough challenge
Press-Tribune Editorial board
June 3, 2010
Idaho Press-Tribune
When the Idaho Legislature finalized its budgets for the 2010 session, it reduced spending on public education by $130 million from the previous year - a 7.5 percent cut. Education had been spared the axe last year, in large part due to federal stimulus money, but wasn't so lucky this year.
Lawmakers did what they could to ease the blow, allowing districts to shift money that had previously been reserved for things such as computers and supplies to other, more urgent needs. But deeper cuts were inevitable.
There is no easy, graceful way to reduce spending at the rate needed to balance the books. Lawmakers were wise to declare a financial emergency for all school districts, which enables them to negotiate pay cuts for teachers even if the districts aren't close to exhausting all their funds.
So now it's up to individual districts to decide how they'll make ends meet, and that's the best way to handle a tough situation. And now we're starting to see how that's going to play out locally. Here are some examples:
* The Caldwell School District has approved a plan that would give most employees a 10-day furlough and would not freeze salaries.
* The Nampa School District has proposed contract revisions for next school year that include two furlough days for teachers, resulting in a 1.1 percent pay reduction. Other district employees would also get two or three furlough days. The plan doesn't include layoffs.
* The Vallivue School District does anticipate layoffs. Plans call for six teachers to be let go, in addition to salary freezes and two furlough days.
Nampa deserves credit for being as interactive with the public as possible, soliciting suggestions from the people on where to cut, then listening to that feedback.
School districts will need to find creative ways to use their reduced dollars and still maintain high standards. Despite the state's funding issues, Idaho students have shown general improvement on test scores in the last few years. Continuing that trend in these times will require all the ingenuity our school boards, teachers and administrators can provide.
Originally posted at http://www.idahopress.com/opinion/editorial/article_f09c8a3e-6ea5-11df-8377-001cc4c002e0.html
The editorial posted here is provided by permission of its original publisher and does not necessarily reflect the views of Idaho Public Television.