The governor shared her second cut at a budget yesterday that attempts to deal with the projected $2.6 billion shortfall. This cut restores some of the education cuts proposed in her first budget released in December. Those that impact us are her recommendation to restore funding for the highly capable program and for levy equalization. This would put the potential impact of cuts for the 2010-11 school year in the $2+ million range for us.
Much discussion, however, will take place as the legislators make decisions about the balance between cuts and raising revenue before we will know for sure what to expect. The governor is including significant revenue from the federal level in her budget that has allowed her to replace some of the proposed cuts in her December proposal. Legislators may or may not feel comfortable doing this. The big issue is doing something in the short term that will not negatively impact both long and short term economic recovery efforts. This issue and the potential for a tax increase will make this a partisan budget setting process.
In the governor’s testimony before the Senate Ways and Means Committee she outlines her proposal. We have also been told that she will continue to support raising the levy lid. This would allow local school districts to collect more revenue from the local community to offset proposed cuts at the state level, something that our board has not endorsed. We also learn of her decision to focus on development of a new teacher evaluation system based on student performance. Sound familiar? Could this be an attempt to position the state for a successful RttT grant? Or, is this a need that was identified using data and best practices for improving the quality of learning and teaching in our schools? Is this the beginning of new legislation focused on RttT criteria? I’ll let you answer these questions for yourselves and share more as the session progresses.
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