5-10% cuts are looming for education

Legislators say they don't want to scare education leaders too much when it comes to looming budget cuts.

"We didn't want to give the entire state nightmares about cutting education," said Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, co-chairman of the Legislature's Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee.

But for some school districts, it's too late.

Davis School District announced proactive budget cuts this week.

A negotiated one-time bonus of $250 per full-time Davis District employee is delayed until potentially after the 2009 legislative session. The bonuses total $1.8 million.

The district is also on a "soft" hiring freeze. Jobs will only be filled after receiving approval from the superintendent's executive staff. Davis school board won't go to the annual school board conference in San Diego. Portions of the district office supply, equipment and travel budgets will be deferred.

State Superintendent Patti Harrington sent a warning e-mail to district superintendents and charter school directors Nov. 7. She said the legislative fiscal analyst asked state education officials to begin thinking how they would handle a 5 percent to 10 percent budget cut at the state office.

District officials are worried about the domino effect.

For the fiscal 2009, the state education office was subject to a 3 percent cut which meant $75.9 million sliced from public education agencies. However, legislators say that money will be "backfilled" to education, using state education office money that carried over from fiscal 2008. As directed by the governor, the action would "hold education harmless" from fiscal 2009 budget cuts, therefore not hurting teachers and classrooms.

Whether the governor's promise still holds — and what will happen to fiscal 2010's education budget — is yet to be seen.

A $20 million pot is still waiting to be sent to teachers in participating districts and charter schools for merit pay in the Legislature's performance-based compensation plan. The one-time money is scheduled to be sent to school districts in December.

"We could exercise discretion and delay that," Larry Shumway, state office deputy superintendent told the subcommittee Friday.

"The common practice in industry is in tough times you don't pay bonuses," he said.

The Utah School Boards Association has stated its support for withdrawing the one-time legislative funding.

Subcommittee members talked dollars with education leaders but took no formal action Friday.

"It's going to take all of us working together. The ultimate end product will be our children," said Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan.

Legislators said they are waiting for the governor to announce the state budget in December.

Friday, legislators and education officials hashed what programs could be potentially cut, as well as different ways of distributing the weighted pupil unit.

Education leaders emphasized the importance of math programs, as well as arts and science. Officials from the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind pled their case as well.

The importance of funding for tutoring students so they can pass the Utah Basic Skills Competency Test was countered with discussions of simply axing the test that is required for Utah's high school students to graduate.

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E-mail: astewart@desnews.com