[Vision2020] Otter's month-old pledge subject to revision

[Moscow Cares]

Courtesy of today's (September 26,  2013) Lewiston Tribune.

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Otter's month-old pledge subject to revision
Marty Trillhaase
Suddenly, the endorsement Gov. C.L. (Butch) Otter extended toward restoring $82.5 million in operational funds to Idaho's strapped schools is conditional.
"That $82 million, as far as I'm concerned, is not going back without some expectations being requested," Otter said last week as his No. 2, Lt. Gov. Brad Little, was kicking off his re-election campaign. "If we weren't spending that $82 million correctly in the first place, I don't want it go right back into the same environment. I want to create some expectations for that $82 million going back and I think that's what the task force expects me to do."
The task force Otter refers to is his own - a diverse group pulled together after the voters gave the governor and state schools Superintendent Tom Luna a thumping last year by repealing their vision of reform, which largely involved punishing or replacing teachers.
Instead, the task force faced reality. Cuts taken from operational funds would be restored and another $253 million would be directed toward improving teacher pay.
At the Aug. 27 Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce meeting, Otter pledged to follow the task force recommendations on a four- to five-year plan.
Operational funds are precisely that - these are dollars spent to keep the doors open. So how does a state attach strings there?
Does it tell a school principal when and where to turn off the lights?
When not to turn up the heat?
Or when not to use the telephone?
Is Otter suggesting the state decide when it's time to replace a damaged or antiquated science textbook? When it's time to update curriculum?
Does he believe someone at the top has more control over health insurance premiums than a local school administrator?
Should decisions to purchase or repair copying machines be made at the top?
Worse, Otter seems to imply the dollars were lifted from school budgets because they had been misspent.
Instead, Otter and lawmakers withdrew state support from local schools during the depth of the Great Recession - and then chose not to restore it when the economy began to recover.
Since 2008, schools are still about $110 million short of where they were when the recession began. Local taxpayers have struggled to bridge the difference. Nearly three-quarters of Idaho's 115 school districts now operate on supplemental property tax levies.
Nevertheless, Idaho schools remain in the backwaters. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Idaho is spending 16 percent less per student than it did in 2008. Only four states - Oklahoma, Alabama, Arizona and Kansas - lost more ground.
Last year, 34 states put more dollars behind each child's education. Idaho was not among them.
That's no accident.
Since 2010, Otter and GOP legislative leaders have been content to lowball revenue forecasts, triggering deeper cuts than were necessary to balance the budget.
And when the tax dollars returned, they funneled the money elsewhere - $56 million in tax cuts to wealthy families and corporations and another $111.3 million has been socked away in reserve accounts.
All of which raises questions about Otter.
Does he not understand what operational funds do?
Or is he looking for a way to back out of his commitment? - M.T.
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Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"There's room at the top they are telling you still 
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill 
If you want to be like the folks on the hill."

- John Lennon
 
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