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School funding debate continues Posted: Wednesday, Jan 23, 2008 - 09:34:50 am PST By MARLISA KEYES Staff writer
SANDPOINT -- Debate continues over whether Idaho adequately funds its public schools. Sen. Shawn Keough would like to resolve that question.She has introduced a bill to spend $200,000 on a nonpartisan study that would examine Idaho's K-12 funding formula. "That seems to be a logical first step," she said.
However, Keough said the funding formula has not been evaluated since the mid-1990s and schools districts are funding programs that they were not required to fund at that time. Districts now use the Internet for teaching, must complete mandatory testing, and have made changes in curriculum, she said. The issue of how important early childhood education is to a child's success in school also is just being discovered, she added. "We know so much more," she said. About half of Idaho's school districts have supplemental levies on their books and there have been calls to adequately fund education, but the word adequate has yet to be defined, Keough said. By tasking the state's Office of Performance -- a nonpartisan agency much like the federal government's General Accounting Office -- the question could be studied "in an object manner" Keough wrote in her statement of purpose. The office would have to contract with an outside agency to do the study. LPOSD Supt. Dick Cvitanich said he is pleased Keough has taken this step and wait to see what comes of the proposed legislation. Discussion about Idaho school funding is an ongoing debate that ended up in spending almost 20 years in the court system and has yet to be resolved. A lawsuit filed by several school districts, including Lake Pend Oreille School District's predecessor, started the debate. That discussion made its way to the Idaho Supreme Court, which determined in 2006 that the state's method of funding education is unconstitutional. However, the court assigned the Idaho Legislature with the task of resolving that problem, but did not specify when or how to answer the question. The suit's backers have appealed to the federal courts to answer that question. The Idaho Legislature has no clear picture of how school districts are spending their money, Keough said. For example, are supplemental levies being spent on additional salaries and is growth contributing to demands on districts, she said. The one thing that is known is that a one-size-all approach does not work for school districts, she said. One district may need more funding for English as a second language students, while rural districts may be spending more money on transporting students to school. RS 17506 has been introduced in the Senate Affairs Committee and is awaiting a hearing. ASimpleDad wrote on Jan 24, 2008 8:47 AM: " How much more obvious does it need to be? Boise will not adequately fund our schools, and we have been suing them about if for 20 years. We won in the courts, and yet Boise still refuses to give our children a fair chance at the American dream. Boise does not care one bit about us here in the Panhandle. They will take our tax money, but don't expect it to come back to our community, no, it goes to Boise's pet projects only. " POST YOUR OPINION
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Bonner County Daily Bee
P.O. Box 159 / Sandpoint, Idaho 83864 / 208-263-9534
Bonner County Daily Bee Online is updated at 10am PST.
Aaron C. wrote on Jan 24, 2008 9:24 AM: