Public schools facing big cuts

BOISE (AP) — Idaho schools will likely make do with 7.5 percent less in total funding next year, according to a plan that includes reducing salaries for first-year teachers.

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee aims to give schools $128 million less in fiscal year 2011 than they’re getting this year from all funding sources. State general fund spending is due to drop 1.4 percent, to $1.21 billion.

Budget writers originally aimed to set the schools’ spending plan Monday, but opted to give House and Senate lawmakers until Wednesday to review their proposal.

That spending plan was not set because some legislators want to reduce the K-12 budget by even more money, Sen. Shawn Keough, R, Sandpoint, wrote in an e-mail to staff at West Bonner and Lake Pend Oreille School Districts Monday morning.

“Part of the reason we did not set the budget today is that some legislators want to set the budget at $10 to 20 million less and specifically take that out of salaries,” she wrote.

The budget would include base salary reductions for teachers and classified staff amounting to 4 percent, plus a $6.5 percent reduction for administrators, along with freezing the salary grid for teachers.

It includes cutting Idaho’s minimum teacher salary to $29,655; suspending pay hikes based on experience and education; and dumping early retirement for a year.

Rep. Maxine Bell, a budget panel co-chair, calls the budget a “hard pill to swallow” but unavoidable.

It appears that the budget would leave Average Daily Attendance protection in place, meaning that Lake Pend Oreille School District would not lose $825,000 in funding.

ADA protection status protects a district when student attendance drops far below what a district projects in its’ budget.

The budget also does not include money for technology, classroom supplies or textbooks.