Idaho educational funding under the microscope

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first installment of a three-part series examining public school funding in Idaho.

Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter brought school funding woes to the forefront last week when he said the state “probably” is failing its Constitutional duties for education.

Idaho’s Constitution requires lawmakers provide a “general, uniform and thorough” system of public schools.

“I would say we are probably not, but we’re doing the best job that we can, and we are going to continue doing the best job that we can,” Otter said to Betsy Russell of The Spokesman-Review.

Mike Ferguson, the governor’s former top budget and numbers guy, coaxed the admission out of Otter.

Ferguson is on a crusade to show that Idaho lawmakers are failing to meet the state Constitution’s requirements for education.

For 25 years, Ferguson served as the state’s chief economist, working for both Democratic and Republican governors. After retiring in 2010,Ferguson became director of the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy, a nonpartisan nonprofit. The organization’s self-described mission is to bring fact-based information and analysis into policy decisions. Ferguson has shared the organization’s findings in meetings with civic groups and by penning newspaper columns.

Originally, Ferguson set out to see what effect the Great Recession had on school funding, but what he learned surprised him.

“What I found … was a much, much bigger issue in play,” Ferguson said. “It is basically the defunding of public education for a period starting approximately in the year 2000.”

Ferguson said tax cuts, budget cuts and a tax shift created in 2006 have led to the problem. Ferguson points out that for two decades lawmakers regularly spent about 4.4 percent of Idaho’s personal income paying for public school. That number has declined since 2000 and dropped to 3.5 percent for this school year - a 20 percent decline.

Even considering the economic downturn, Ferguson said budget cuts and the legislators’ commitment to not increasing taxes is no excuse for “ducking their Constitutional duty.”

“My argument is the Constitution doesn’t say ‘by whatever limited means you define,’ the Constitution says you will do this,” Ferguson said.

“When you’re sworn in and take the oath of office, it’s to the Constitution of the state, not Grover Norquist. That means you have to find the wherewithal to do this job.”

Ferguson isn’t the only one concerned with school funding in Idaho.

On Dec. 21, 2005, the Idaho Supreme Court affirmed a District Court ruling that “the current school funding system is simply not sufficient to carry out the Legislature’s duty under the Constitution.”

Although the court indicated it would retain jurisdiction, justices released jurisdiction the following year and the case was closed as of Nov. 30, 2006, according to the Idaho Supreme Court Data Repository.

It isn’t over, however, for Ferguson.

He said the increase in supplemental levies - from $140 million to $169 million in the past year - demonstrates lawmakers fail to meet the equality standard of “uniform” public schools. The supplemental levies reveal inequality, Ferguson said, because they show all districts are not created equal.

The state’s second-richest district, the McCall-Donnelly School District, would raise $4,696 per student through a supplemental levy of .1 percent. Meanwhile, the poorest district, Bingham County’s Snake River School District would raise just $153 per student by passing the same levy rate.

“Now we see a dramatic increase in the use of property tax, but it’s all unequalized, meaning school districts have vastly different funding capacity from sources being increasingly tapped to make up for a lack of state funds,” Ferguson said.

Melissa McGrath, spokeswoman for the Idaho Department of Education, said Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna was not available for comment on this article.

She said the recent economic recession necessitated cuts to school funding.

“There is no doubt we have been in the greatest recession we have seen in generations, and our Legislature has had to make tough decisions regarding all state funding,” McGrath said.

Bryan Jolley, superintendent of the Shelley Joint School District, said Ferguson is right.

Jolley has studied Ferguson’s research and seen first-hand the impact budget cuts made in his district.

Over the last five years, Jolley said state money for his district has decreased from $10 million a year to $8 million this year, a 20 percent decrease. In response, Jolley said officials had to lay off seven teachers from a pool of 121 certificated employees, which includes teachers, counselors, speech pathologists and administrators.

Shelley district officials also cut spending on textbooks, field trips, elective courses and laid off the school resource officer.

On top of that, the district depleted its reserve savings account by $400,000, from $1.2 million down to $800,000 and successfully asked residents to pass two supplemental levy tax increases to offset state cuts.

“There is no way for the district to adequately fund the education system, and we’ve relied on supplemental levies to do that. But we don’t have the capacity to do that (over the long-term).”

Shelley’s district is the state’s seventh-poorest - based on the value of property within the district and attendance - according toFerguson’s research.

This week, Jolley met with eastern Idaho superintendents and lawmakers and shared his concerns. He said his district - and many other small or rural districts - are running out of options. Jolley doesn’t have the reserve funds to prop his district up, and said he is worried about being able to keep the doors open for another year after this year’s two-year supplemental levy expires.

McGrath said state officials hear the concerns and restored some education funding this year.

“The public schools budget was the last dollar cut during the economic recession and the first dollar restored as state revenues picked up again,” McGrath said of the 4.6 percent increase in state money for schools approved during the 2012 session.

Even with the increase, however, state funding for schools still lags 2009 budget year levels by about $100 million.

Jolley said his message to lawmakers is to restore the education spending cuts before anything else.

“I hope they look at it as an opportunity to fix a problem,” Jolley said. “If they don’t fix the problem, we’ll be right back there where we were in early ’80s with multiple districts joining together to sue the state because of a lack thoroughness and uniformity. That’s not a threat because we have no alternative left. If the school districts can’t get any response from legislators or the governor, (a suit) is all we have left. We can’t go bankrupt.”