Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction says education cuts have reached limit

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna says the Legislature will have a difficult task when it convenes in January.

"There are very few things the Idaho Constitution says the state has to fund, but K-12 education is one of those. That should set the priorities," Luna told a Lewiston audience. "The governor has been clear that some things state government is doing now, we may not be able to do in the future if we're going to meet our constitutional obligations."

Gov. Butch Otter, for the second straight year, has ordered state agencies, universities and colleges to hold back spending as Idaho suffers more fallout from the economic recession and high unemployment.

This time, the governor is trying to offset a $151 million shortfall in state revenue. Otter is asking the Legislature to pull $49.3 million from a rainy-day account for education to avoid any immediate cuts to public schools.

Luna said his budget proposal for the 2010-2011 fiscal year seeks the same level of funding as the current fiscal year's budget, plus $20 million to $25 million to pay for enrollment growth.

Legislative budget writers set the 2010 fiscal year budget for public schools at $1.3 billion, down about 7.7 percent from the previous fiscal year, which ended June 30.

More than a dozen school districts, struggling to make ends meet, declared financial emergencies this year under a new Idaho law that allowed them to cut teacher pay, hours and contract length.

Luna said academic progress must be protected. In August, the state Department of Education released scores from Idaho Standards Achievement Tests showing about 66 percent of Idaho schools made adequate progress under the federal No Child Left Behind law in the most recent school year. That number has nearly tripled since two years ago, when about a quarter of schools made adequate progress, Luna said.

"We've seen a tremendous increase," he said. "Education is moving in the right direction. My message to the Legislature is that we can't do anything to put that progress at risk."