Federation Focus/The Western Region: School leaders concerned with funding issues
04/09 -- Colorado
Colorado school districts are hoping federal stimulus funds will lessen the impact of severe budget shortfalls, says Jane Urschel, deputy executive director of the Colorado Association of School Boards (CASB).
About half of the state’s districts lost bond and mil elections last November, Urschel says. As a result, the Douglas County school district slashed about $37 million from its budget, cutting transportation services, increasing class sizes, and laying off 238 employees. The Mesa County school district, which has a shortage of classrooms, had to adopt a year-round schedule after voters rejected a construction bond.
Meanwhile, Urschel says, the state government has rescinded about $6.2 million in promised education funds for 2008-09. State revenues are down about $1 billion, primarily due to declining sales and income tax revenues.
This year’s cut comes to about .522 percent per district, which translates to about $2.6 million for Denver and $1.7 million for Cherry Creek. The state is expected to cut about $129 million in K-12 funding for FY 2009-10.
“The stimulus may make all of this more palatable for at least a couple of years,” Urschel says. “It’s only a stop-gap solution, but we hope this money will buy some time for school districts until the economy improves.”
The additional Individuals with Disabilities Education Act funding in The Stimulus will be helpful, since Colorado’s districts must pick up about 70 percent of the cost of educating children with special needs, Urschel says. “Districts would like to hire more special education teachers, but where are they going to come from?”
South Dakota
A key priority for the Associated School Boards of South Dakota is changing the way the annual increase in state aid for education is calculated, reports Executive Director Wayne Lueders.
Currently, the annual per-pupil funding increase is 3 percent or the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), whichever is less.
ASBSD supports legislation passed by the state Senate Feb. 17 that would change the state’s index factor to 4 percent or CPI-W, whichever is more. The bill has a “safety valve” provision that allows smaller increases in poor economic times.
In testimony before the Senate Education Committee, ASBSD General Counsel William H. Engberg noted that the K-12 share of the state budget has declined from 39 percent to 31 percent during the past decade, and that has led to stagnant teacher salaries.
Meanwhile, a $40 to $50 million state shortfall has been projected for next year but significant education cuts proposed by the governor have been put on hold following passage of the federal economic stimulus measure. “We’re trying to figure out exactly how much the state is going to get and how much will go to local school districts,” Lueders says.
Other ASBSD priorities include urging the legislature to set prekindergarten standards and to allow districts to share grades. Under current law, all districts must be K-12. Districts may share athletic programs but not academic programs.
The association’s “whole grade sharing agreement” calls for school districts -- particularly small ones in rural areas -- to combine middle and high schools while maintaining their district and school board as independent entities.
Another law requires districts with fewer than 100 students to develop a consolidation plan, but there is concern that the legislature might require larger districts to consolidate. About a third of South Dakota’s districts have fewer than 260 students.
Kansas
The Kansas legislature, trying to offset a projected $1 billion shortfall, is weighing funding cuts for the rest of this fiscal year as well as 2009-10, reports John Koepke, executive director of the Kansas Association of School Boards.
“School districts are spending a lot of time trying to decide how to curtail expenditures with the least harm to children,” Koepke says.
More than half the funding for K-12 education comes from state sources, and revenue is split about equally among income, sales, and property taxes, he notes.
KASB is urging the legislature to “enhance revenue to target spending cuts so that education will be spared,” Koepke says, although he concedes that state leaders have been reluctant to raise taxes.
Federal stimulus funding will help, but Koepke says districts will be reluctant to use the one-time money for ongoing expenses.
New Mexico
The New Mexico School Boards Association has two major priorities for legislators: revise the state’s funding formula and restore school boards’ authority to hire district staff.
The current per-pupil funding formula is based on about 20 different factors. “We’re trying to get a new formula in place that is more streamlined and focuses more on poverty and less on mandates,” says NMSBA Executive Director Joe Guillen. It also would give school boards more leeway to set their own priorities.
The proposed funding formula is under consideration in the state House, then it will go to the Senate. Last year, the measure was left in limbo in the Senate, but Guillen says “we feel good about it” this year.
NMSBA is part of a major campaign urging the adoption of the new formula. The campaign also includes the state’s two teachers unions, PTA, and administrators’ association.
The measure would increase local school funding by about 15 to 20 percent, which would cost about $350 million, Guillen says. The additional expenditure would be offset by a new 1 percent sales tax.
Guillen notes that the percentage of the state budget allocated to education has declined from 51.6 percent to less than 44 percent.
NMSBA also is working to get the legislature to reverse a provision in a 2003 state law that gave superintendents total responsibility for hiring district employees. NMSBA believes hiring decisions should be a shared responsibility between the superintendent and school board.
North Dakota
North Dakota’s financial picture is much brighter, thanks to oil revenues that have left the state with a large surplus, says Bev Nielson of the North Dakota School Boards Association (NDSBA).
School leaders are waiting to see how the governor and legislature will address concerns raised by the North Dakota Commission on Education Improvement, which spent the past year looking at funding adequacy issues.
NDSBA Executive Director Jon Martinson served on the commission, which recommended that education funding be increased by some $120 million. The money would be used to raise the per-pupil allocation and provide funding for prekindergarten programs, professional development, mentors and instructional coaches, career advisers, improved assessments, transportation, and data systems.
A bill reflecting the commission’s recommendations has cleared the House and is awaiting action in the Senate.
“By and large, we support the commission recommendations,” Martinson says, but NDSBA hasn’t taken an official position on one of the more controversial proposals: creating differentiated high school diplomas.
The commission wants the state to create a new “merit diploma” requiring three units each of math and science as well as three years of focused electives with an emphasis on languages, fine arts, and career and technical education.
Under certain circumstances, students could opt out of the “merit” diploma and earn a “general diploma,” which continues the current requirements of four units of English/language arts and two units each of math and science.
Students who attain additional achievements, such as a high GPA and SAT score, could receive an honors certificate. Those students would be eligible for a $1,500 scholarship for a state-supported college or university.
Nielson predicts a battle over pre-K funding. North Dakota requires public schools to offer kindergarten but parents don’t have to enroll their children. She also thinks legislators might resist funding mentors and instructional coaches.
If the bill passes, along with proposed property tax relief legislation now under consideration, state funding would increase from about 50 percent to 70 percent of most districts’ budgets.
Reproduced with permission from School Board News. Copyright © 2009, National School Boards Association. Opinions expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily reflect positions of NSBA. This article may be printed out and photocopied for individual or educational use, provided this copyright notice appears on each copy. This article may not be otherwise transmitted or reproduced in print or electronic form without the consent of the Publisher. For more information, call (703) 838-6789.