As you may have read in the paper, $15M additional has been backfilled into public education. It was announced by the republican leadership in our caucus today that “we had $15M more than we thought coming from a structural balance.” To be honest, I’m still not clear where that money was found (we joked it was under some sofa cushions in the Capitol), but I do know it lowers the total hit to public ed (we are only talking FY09 here) to just over 3%, down from the original cut of 7.8%, with the original 3.5% backfill and now the $15M new backfill. That should help schools avoid some of the drastic cuts at least for this FY. We begin looking at FY10 next week.
Several bills were discussed in the Education committee this morning. One was a bill, sponsored by Rep. Laura Black, that would allow school districts to determine birthday cutoff for enrolling a child in kindergarten. This was intended to help year round schools who begin in July and with a September 1st deadline often have children coming in under age 5. After much discussion, it was defeated in committee, with a tie vote of 5-5. In the case of a tie a bill is defeated. Since I voted for the bill (I liked the control it gave to individual school districts) I thought the tie should go to the runner and it should move on, but baseball rules do not apply here.
The second bill in Education was presented by Rep. Lorie Fowlke. It was a bill that allowed credit transfers for teachers when moving between school districts. The intent of the bill is good, but economics of individual school districts may make it very difficult for more experienced teachers to transfer when a district may prefer to hire a first year teacher over a highly qualified, seasoned teacher because of cost. After a lot of discussion we tabled this bill and it will come before the committee again next week.
The last bill discussed was presented by Rep. Wayne Harper. It is a bill that restructures the tax base that public ed draws from and includes sales tax in the mix along with property tax. This bill got no further than Rep. Harper’s opening remarks and then we had to adjourn for floor time. This is a very complex bill and when it is heard next week is sure to be very controversial. The volatility of sales and property taxes will need to be looked at as well as other impacts this would have.
Davis County legislators had lunch with many of our County officials; Commissioners Louenda Downs and Bret Milburn, County Assessor Jim Ivie, and County Treasurer Mark Altom. We discussed the burden state cuts will place on counties, specifically in the area of health and human services where counties provide about 80% of those services. We also discussed their take on Rep. Harper’s education/tax reform bill.
It was a great day and the end of the first week. Five and half more and LOTS of work left to do. I’ll send out my legislative update tomorrow and catch up on some research on bills for next week.
Would anyone be interested in a four year plan to end this desparate financial situation? Finding money under the pillow is not what God had in mind when He told us to be “prepared in all things”.
Becky, thanks for voting for that bill by Rep. Black. I’m curious if you know any of the reasons why 5 members of the committee voted against it.
Becky,
Hooray for voting for Rep. Black’s bill. I support bills that give power to school districts to work their schools for their population base in the best ways possible. Piggy-backing onto her idea. Is there anything coming up that addresses full day kindergarten in schools? With such a huge base of our population working full-time it would make a lot of sense to get kids into school and learning. So many kids are enrolled in pre-K programs right now and it does put them ahead with learning, but those who do not benefit from this are those who have two parents who work full-time, or who may be from single-parent homes, or simply those who cannot afford the luxury of a pre-K program. These are frequently the students who start in our system behind the eight ball, so to speak.
I think it was the right thing to do in voting agains the credit transfers. While it is great on paper, it really ties a district into potentially hiring less-qualified teachers because they are less-expensive.
I am interested in the bill that is tabled involving the sales tax. Wouldn’t this simply add another piece of the pie to education? Where the sales tax would be volatile, it could be used for special programs or technology “boosts” to schools or teacher training. Then the money that is normally used for that (Trustlands ?) could be used elsewhere. Am I missing something?
Finally, Chuck (from above), I am interested in a four year plan. Do you have one? I personally don’t think this is an issue about God, but I do think we need to pool our intellect to help solve some serious problems right now.
Although the argument for the bill was that it allowed local school districts the opportunity to determine what would best meet the needs of their population (the more local control the better), the committee members in opposition felt the parents were the ultimate “local” control and were left out of the decision making equation. Some testifying that morning also felt it placed a burden on parents for an additional year of care, or expense of preschool, prior to entering kindergarten.
Dear Camille, I am sorry you took my refernce to God in a negative way. I am olny saying that it is wise for us to look beyond today, finding a deeper understanding of what our potential is. Because we are so busy everyday it is hard to get the time to ponder and think outside the box. We find ourselve holding on to what we have because we do not have any time to find something better.
Do I have a four year plan? Yes, and I am actively putting it into action. Look on the previous post for a short intro. Let me know if you want to know more.