Idaho – Last Friday, Governor Brad Little put forward a plan to cut nearly $99 million from education. The cuts will come from a variety of places including teacher salaries, classroom technology, professional development training, and curriculum planning. On Monday, presidents of 18 education associations in Southwest Idaho sent a letter urging school districts to avoid budget cuts to maintain a stable environment for students.
The Idaho House and Senate Democratic Leaders are concerned that the proposed cut of nearly $100 million to education funding will have grave impacts on the quality of education in Idaho and the future of Idaho students. Moreover, the draconian education cuts being proposed will force school districts to run more levies, which will exacerbate an already dire property tax crisis.
“We appreciate and acknowledge the difficult financial decisions that the Governor has to make in the coming months to ensure Idaho’s economic recovery,” Senator Minority Leader Senator Michelle Stennett/(D-Ketchum) and House Minority Leader Representative Ilana Rubel/(D-Boise) said. “We urge the Governor to continue exploring other avenues for balancing the budget that do not mortgage our children’s future. Children already face setbacks from months of missed classes. The needs for remediation, equipment and IT support are only increasing, as has the need for professional development to allow educators to transition effectively to remote teaching models. Moreover, if students are to return to school this fall (as we hope), more trained staff will be required to help children who have fallen behind and to implement new safety practices to prevent the spread of disease within schools. At the very least current staffing levels must be maintained.”
“We urge the Governor to consider all practical alternatives to the proposed cuts to education, including use of Idaho’s internet sales tax fund, the ‘Rainy Day fund,’ and potential federal relief funds. We applaud the Governor’s creativity in allocating $300 million of those federal monies to support small businesses that could not access the Payroll Protection Program, and we hope that same creativity and discretion can be used to allocate substantial funds to ensure quality education for our children.
“Our underfunding of schools in good times has put our children in an extremely precarious position now that we are facing a crisis. While Idaho’s proposed funding cuts are smaller in percentage terms than in other states, we are starting from lower levels of funding. Cuts to Idaho schools will affect the most basic components of education and leave no room for intervention to help kids who have fallen behind due to school closures.”
“Idaho’s children have already experienced a serious disruption to their education over the past two months, but those learning setbacks will be worsened dramatically, with long-term consequences, if the proposed education cuts become a reality. We appreciate the Governor’s commitment to make education a top priority, and are ready to work with him and our colleagues in the legislature to find fiscally responsible solutions that balance our budget as well as our Constitutional obligation to provide a free, thorough and uniform education system.”
“This would also be an excellent time to examine the more than $2 billion in sales tax exemptions that drain Idaho’s coffers every year, many of which were passed at the behest of special interests decades ago and have never since been examined (resulting in over $28 billion of lost revenue since 2005). Idaho’s schoolchildren and its property taxpayers deserve a fair system of taxation in which all pay their share and we are not forced into deep, damaging cuts to education.