This is Floyd Wynne with THE VIEW FROM HERE 6/23/05

Are we heading for a train wreck in school funding?
I’m a bit puzzled by several statements about our city school finances.
First off.....it is reported that the adopted budget is 29.7 million while it was 30.2 million last year. Where did that $500,000 go.
The funding at the state level now appears to be at least 5.2 billion....up from 4.9 billion for the past biennium. That’s a hike in overall education financing of at least 300 million dollars.
That’s a 17 plus percent increase for the next two year funding cycle.
So why the lower amount of funding for city schools.
Obviously there is a reason for it, but as yet all the public knows is that the city school administration is talking of big cuts in teachers and in programs. I think it’s fair to ask why?
They talk of eliminating 19 teaching positions next year...boosting the cost to those participating in after school sports from $40 per sport at the high school level to $100 and at the junior high school level from $25 to $75.
Earlier I think the finger was pointing at such things as the increased cost of benefits to the teachers and the increased cost in retirement for the teachers.
Indications are that negotiations with union representatives over these issues are not bearing much fruit.
I’m not being critical of the school board....nor of the city school administrations, but rather asking for more information than the general public have gotten thus far on just why the big cuts in teachers and the increased costs of sport participation.
At the rate we’re going, I can see a request for a possible city income tax to support schools in our town. At one time much of the school financing came from local property taxes, but now it comes from the state income taxes.
All right.....what’s the principal, basic issue for having schools?
It’s to give our school age children the best possible education, right?
Shouldn’t that, then, be the very first consideration in any school budget? Do we let teacher salaries, teacher health benefits, and teacher retirement dictate what kind of an education we’re going to have for our children?
Instead, I think the time is near, or perhaps has come, to take a sincere look at not the teacher salaries....because those seem reasonable considering it is a nine month a year job.
No....it’s time to look at the benefits that have been initiated over the years such as matching retirement pay and the payment of if not all at least the most of the health benefits.
There’s talk at the state level of limiting education funding to just 51 percent of the total income taxes the state acquires. Already the residents of the Portland area incomes are being taxed to provide additional funding for their schools.
Is that the wave of the future for the rest of the state?
These are questions that must be answered.
That’s why I asked the question.....Are we heading for a train wreck in our local school funding?

This is Floyd Wynne and that’s THE VIEW FROM HERE.