Utah schools facing $85 million cut this year

SALT LAKE CITY — While a recommendation of how to slice 4 percent from state education budgets is rolling forward, officials are hoping the Legislature will use its Rainy Day Fund instead.

"This is a starting place, and we will work with the Legislature to protect public education and schoolchildren as much as possible from these cuts," said state Superintendent Larry Shumway.

The Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee approved Wednesday an across-the-board cut totaling $85 million in the current budget, which affects this school year.

Two committee members, former school teachers Rep. Marie Poulson, D-Cottonwood Heights, and Sen. Karen Morgan, D-Cottonwood Heights, voted against the education cuts.

Morgan said it's difficult to make the cuts in the middle of the school year. "It's really not absolutely necessary because we have $100 million set aside for education programs, and we should be using that before we make any further cuts," she said.

The committee added a motion encouraging lawmakers to not cut education at all.

Shumway points out the school year is half over, essentially making it a potential 8 percent cut. "Those cuts would be extraordinarily difficult for school districts," he said. "It would have a tremendous impact on the classroom."

Last year, districts handled budget cuts with employee furloughs, letting administrators go and reducing teaching staffs, which results in increased class sizes.

"We're down to bare bones. Everywhere we cut impacts children directly now," said Steve Noyce, superintendent of Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind. He added the school would likely have to shut down its residential program in Ogden, which houses 28 students, if a 4 percent cut was implemented.

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