Lawmakers OK school bailout
BOISE – Legislative budget writers agreed Monday to bail out the state’s public schools this year to save them from a funding shortfall of more than $200 per classroom, caused by an unexpected jump in enrollment.
“Essentially, we’re making sure that every school district is held harmless for the 2005 year,” said Senate Finance Chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert. “This is a good thing.”
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee agreed to dip into the state’s budget stabilization fund for $5 million and add it to a reserve fund within the public school budget that totals $7.2 million. That will allow enough money to more than cover the roughly $10 million shortfall, and any funds left over will continue to serve as a reserve for schools next year.
The unanimous vote granted a request from state Superintendent of Public Instruction Marilyn Howard for a $5 million infusion for the schools.
“We’re pleased – this certainly will help districts, as changes in funding midyear make it very difficult for them with their budgets,” said Allison Westfall, Howard’s spokeswoman. She said state officials were scrambling Monday to let school districts know they wouldn’t face the dire shortfalls later this spring that they had been warned of last month.
Idaho saw 3,800 more students enroll in school this year, an overrun of 90 classrooms. Thirty-four of those classrooms were in a single new virtual charter school sponsored by the Whitepine School District.
“These virtual-type charter schools – they can get pretty large pretty quickly,” legislative budget analyst Jason Hancock told JFAC.
In the case of the Whitepine charter, the Internet-based school was set up after lawmakers had set the budget for the school year, so it threw off enrollment projections in a big way. To avoid that problem in the future, JFAC earlier added two new requirements to the public schools budget for next year: New charter schools must be set up by Jan. 1 in order to start the following school year, and a single charter school can’t get state funding to grow by more than 20 classrooms per year.
Another third of the unanticipated student growth this year came in the fast-growing Meridian School District, the state’s largest. The rest was spread around the state.
Mike Friend, head of the Idaho Association of School Administrators, and John Eikum, lobbyist for the Idaho Rural Schools Association, were looking noticeably relieved after the committee’s vote.
“The only thing you can do when 85 to 90 percent of your money is already obligated this time of year, is you simply halt everything,” Friend said.
“We’re very pleased,” Eikum said. “Schools were a little bit apprehensive about making ends meet.”
Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover, noted that many objected when the public school reserve fund was set up in 2003 in the public schools budget. It was viewed as money that lawmakers claimed they gave the schools, but that couldn’t be spent.
That money carried over through last year, making it available this year to help offset the shortfall. “I think we’re seeing now the full value of this stabilization fund,” Eskridge said. “Without having this in the background, we would’ve had some short funding of the schools. … I just hope in future years we remember the value of the (school) stabilization fund.”